In Mojave Desert, startup JetZero builds novel plane to take on Airbus and Boeing

Highlights

• JetZero hopes blended-wing design will cut fuel use by 50%
• California firm aims to fly full-size demonstrator by the end of 2027
• US Air Force selected JetZero for a $235 million demonstrator effort
• JetZero hopes to produce first commercial jets in 2030

Inside a cavernous aircraft hangar in the Mojave Desert, JetZero is building a full-size demonstrator of what could be a 200-plus-seat jet, a lucrative market segment expected to be at the centre of future plane strategies for Airbus and Boeing.

The test plane, due to fly by the end of next year, marks a key milestone in the California startup's long-shot bid to build the first blended-wing commercial jet, in which the fuselage and wings merge into a single lifting surface.

The manta ray-shaped design could cut fuel use by as much as half, the company says, and has already drawn early interest and investment from United Airlines and Alaska Airlines.

The demonstrator, partly funded by the US Air Force, is being built for JetZero by Scaled Composites, a Northrop Grumman-owned aircraft developer, and uses the same Pratt & Whitney engines that power the Boeing 757.

A successful first flight could unlock further investment, enabling JetZero to develop commercial jets for first production from 2030 at its newly launched manufacturing campus in Greensboro, North Carolina, though that is dependent on the certification timeline for the novel design.

The design could also be adapted for military transport or aerial refuelling.

"Nobody's ever done this before," JetZero CEO Tom O'Leary told Reuters of the construction of the first full-size blended-wing demonstrator, a concept NASA has researched for decades and Boeing once came close to developing.

"We're taking existing technology, 30-plus years of NASA research," he said.

The details of the demonstrator are closely guarded, though the goal is to demonstrate whether the shape can generate lift with less drag, reducing the thrust — and fuel — needed in cruise.

Only the cockpit will be pressurised, and the fuel tanks will go where the passengers would be.

Huge hurdles to overcome

JetZero's Z4 aircraft will be aimed at the "middle of the market" once served by Boeing's 757 and 767, typically 200 to 270 seats on medium- to long-haul routes.

The startup's design replaces the conventional tube fuselage with a wide, flat cabin, opening the door to new seating layouts, larger windows and more flexible interiors, with space for reconfigured galleys and lavatories. Engines mounted above the rear are intended to reduce noise on the ground and improve efficiency.

Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, said the JetZero team had surprised many in the aerospace industry but faced major hurdles: first proving the promised efficiency gains, then securing the funding needed to turn a prototype into a certified aircraft, a process likely to take many years and cost billions of dollars.

"It's premature, but it's not irrational," he said of whether passengers could soon be flying on a JetZero aircraft. "We can't rule it out."

This is real

Founded in 2020, JetZero was initially met with widespread scepticism. The US Air Force gave the project a major boost in August 2023, selecting JetZero for a $235 million, four-year effort to build a demonstrator.

Aeronautical engineer Bjorn Fehrm, an analyst at Leeham News, said the promised fuel savings from its shape had yet to be proven and viewed the aircraft as a better fit for the US Air Force.

"This type of design is ideal for military aeroplanes that need stealth and volume for cargo or fuel, but not necessarily so well suited to passenger aircraft," he said.

Airlines, whose biggest cost is fuel, have added momentum with investments and orders for aircraft conditional on the ambitious concept becoming reality.

In January, JetZero raised $175 million in a funding round led by B Capital, with participation from United Airlines Ventures, Northrop Grumman and RTX Ventures. United Airlines' investment included a path to buy up to 100 aircraft and options for another 100.

A further funding round is planned by the end of this year, with a public listing potentially to follow by 2028, O'Leary said, as the company seeks to ride a surge of investor interest in aerospace innovation, supercharged by SpaceX's record IPO last month, which valued Elon Musk's rocket and AI company at $2 trillion.

"You won't find any aerospace company CEO in the world who's not thinking about public markets right now after the SpaceX IPO," O'Leary said.

He acknowledged much rests on the test flight.

"After the demonstrator flies… that opens up the window for an aircraft order book because the airline industry will say: 'This is real.'"