1 00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com, 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:15,160 Speaker 1: where smart happens him Marshall Brain with today's question, what 3 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:20,120 Speaker 1: are airplanes in going to look like in the United States? 4 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:22,919 Speaker 1: If you think about the airplanes that are flying in 5 00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:26,600 Speaker 1: the United States today, they all look pretty much the same. 6 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:29,000 Speaker 1: If you think about a seven thirty seven or a 7 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: seven forty seven, or a seven fifty seven or a 8 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:36,080 Speaker 1: d C ten, it's pretty much a big aluminum tube 9 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:39,440 Speaker 1: with two wings sticking out of it and a tail. 10 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:42,920 Speaker 1: All airplanes have looked like this pretty much since World 11 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:45,559 Speaker 1: War Two for a couple of different reasons, but the 12 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:48,920 Speaker 1: main reason is because this is a very easy design 13 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: to manufacture and aluminum. In order to shake up the 14 00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:55,400 Speaker 1: design world a little bit and get people thinking in 15 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:59,160 Speaker 1: different ways about new aircraft, NaSTA has been working with 16 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:02,520 Speaker 1: the big aircraft ARAFT manufacturers on a set of new 17 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:07,319 Speaker 1: designs for the year. The most important goal that NASA 18 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:11,479 Speaker 1: is pushing in these new designs is much better fuel economy. 19 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:15,279 Speaker 1: NASA has set an incredibly aggressive goal of reducing fuel 20 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:20,039 Speaker 1: consumption by se in the new airplanes. That's great for 21 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:23,240 Speaker 1: the environment, but it's also great for consumers because when 22 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:25,720 Speaker 1: you buy a ticket on an airplane. The main thing 23 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:28,360 Speaker 1: that's controlling the cost of that ticket is the cost 24 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,559 Speaker 1: of the fuel. NASA has some other goals, like much 25 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:36,560 Speaker 1: cleaner exhaust and lower noise production. In addition, NASA wants 26 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 1: these airplanes to not be too radical. They have to 27 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,480 Speaker 1: fit into the existing air traffic control structure, and they 28 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: have to be able to land and take off at 29 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: the existing airports and also fit into the airport gate structure. 30 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: If NASA made too radical a change and you had 31 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:54,520 Speaker 1: to retrofit all the airports in the United States or 32 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: make the runways longer, something like that, it would probably 33 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:00,920 Speaker 1: be too expensive to carry off. So NASA has chosen 34 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 1: three designs, and they've awarded contracts to three of the 35 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:09,919 Speaker 1: big aircraft manufacturers, Boeing, lockeed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. By 36 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,880 Speaker 1: looking at these three designs, we can see what NASA 37 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:16,320 Speaker 1: is thinking. The least radical of the three designs is 38 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:19,360 Speaker 1: the one that lockeed Martin is building. It looks pretty 39 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 1: much like any airplane that we see today. It's a 40 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 1: tube with two wings, but the engines have been reduced 41 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:27,680 Speaker 1: to one and they've been moved to the very back 42 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:31,240 Speaker 1: of the plane. The idea here is to use something 43 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:36,800 Speaker 1: called boundary layer ingestion, taking slower moving air off the 44 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:39,600 Speaker 1: back of the fuselage and running it through the engine 45 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:43,600 Speaker 1: to produce thrust. That step alone could produce some pretty 46 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 1: amazing fuel savings, and by putting the engine up on 47 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: top of the fuselage, you lower noise quite a bit. 48 00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:55,120 Speaker 1: Northrop Grumman's design looks a lot more radical, but uses 49 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:59,920 Speaker 1: the same basic manufacturing infrastructure that's available today. In this design, 50 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,200 Speaker 1: and the plane has not one but two fuselages hanging 51 00:03:04,320 --> 00:03:07,800 Speaker 1: side by side under the wings. The idea is that 52 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:11,560 Speaker 1: a fuselage doesn't really add that much extra drag, but 53 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:14,120 Speaker 1: you can get a lot more passengers on the plane, 54 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:17,680 Speaker 1: so you increase the fuel economy per passenger quite a bit. 55 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:20,440 Speaker 1: M I. T did some research around this idea and 56 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 1: they came up with something they called the double bubble fuselage, 57 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:27,840 Speaker 1: where the two fuselages are actually blended together in the 58 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:30,959 Speaker 1: middle of the airplane. And then they put the boundary 59 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: layer and gestion engines on the back of the plane 60 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:37,400 Speaker 1: as well, and this gave some pretty remarkable improvements in 61 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:41,240 Speaker 1: fuel economy and noise reduction. And then Boeing's airplane is 62 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 1: the most radical design, it's a giant blended wing approach. 63 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:50,080 Speaker 1: Instead of using a tube with wings approach that's so 64 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:54,000 Speaker 1: universal today, a blended wing aircraft blends the wings and 65 00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:57,560 Speaker 1: the fuselage together. The B two Bomber is the best 66 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 1: example of a blended wing approach that's in use today. 67 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: Since the fuselage is no longer a tube, it can 68 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: be much much wider. There could be a dozen or 69 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:10,760 Speaker 1: more rows of seats inside of one of these airplanes, 70 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:14,400 Speaker 1: and that could increase passenger capacity quite a bit. In 71 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: Boeing's designed the engines are also up on top and 72 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:20,000 Speaker 1: in the back of the fuselage to get the boundary 73 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: layer ingestion effect and also to reduce noise. Boeing already 74 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:27,640 Speaker 1: has a scale model of this approach flying. It's called 75 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:30,359 Speaker 1: the X forty eight, and the results have been pretty 76 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:33,200 Speaker 1: good so far. The big question here is can the 77 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:37,600 Speaker 1: manufacturing of this type of airplane be perfected. Boeing has 78 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:40,599 Speaker 1: had so much trouble building the seven eight seven, also 79 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:44,000 Speaker 1: known as the Dream Lighter, out of carbon fiber, that 80 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:47,040 Speaker 1: is just not clear that a really radical design like 81 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:51,679 Speaker 1: a blended wing can be manufactured inexpensively and at high volume. 82 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:56,760 Speaker 1: So that's NASA's lineup for It'll be interesting to see 83 00:04:56,839 --> 00:05:00,160 Speaker 1: if any of these things actually start flying fifth ten 84 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:02,560 Speaker 1: years from now, and if we board airplanes like this 85 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:06,480 Speaker 1: when we go to the airport. 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