Flying-V is the next-gen futuristic aircraft that’s already completed its maiden flight

The next generation of futuristic aircraft is on the horizon – and The Flying-V has already completed its maiden flight.

The Flying-V is a futuristic and fuel-efficient aircraft that could one day carry passengers in its wings.

It unique design places the passenger cabin, the cargo hold and and the fuel tanks in the wings, and experts are hopeful that its aerodynamic shape will slash fuel consumption by 20 percent compared to today’s aircrafts.

READ MORE! Mind-boggling video exposes the enormity of the largest and most spacious passenger aircraft

Experts have already tested a 22.5 kg and 3-meter scale model of the Flying-V, developed by researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Dutch airline, KLM, is also involved as a partner, to take the highly anticipated aircraft along its next developmental steps.

At a guarded airbase in Germany, a team of researchers and engineers tested the aircraft.

There they worked with an Airbus team to test takeoffs, maneuvers and approaches, and landing.

Researchers, remotely controlling the aircraft, managed to take off at a speed of 80 km/h (49 mph), while the aircraft’s flight speeds, angles and thrust were as planned, they noted.

“One of our worries was that the aircraft might have some difficulty lifting-off, since previous calculations had shown that ‘rotation’ could be an issue,” Roelof Vos, assistant professor at the aerospace engineering faculty of Delft’s University of Technology, who led the project, explained in a statement.

“The team optimized the scaled flight model to prevent the issue but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. You need to fly to know for sure,” he said.

Experts have worked hard to optimize the Flying-V: in order to improve telemetry, the team was forced to change the aircraft’s center of gravity and adjust its antenna.

However, there’s still a lot of work to be done to refine the plane before it’ll be able to take to the skies with passengers onboard.

According to researchers, the test flight showed that the aircraft’s current design allows for too much “Dutch roll,” which caused a rough landing.

Sounds like a few airlines we’ve flown with in the past…

Data collected from the test flight will be used by experts for an aerodynamic model of the Flying-V.

This will allow them to program it in a flight simulator for future tests, and to improve future flights.

Just like this smart simulator could show you exactly what it’d be like to fly Concorde.

What’s more, the team plans to conduct more tests on the model, and hope to provide the Flying-V with sustainable propulsion, given that the design lends itself to carrying liquid hydrogen instead of kerosene.

On the subject of hydrogen, Rolls-Royce is currently working on a hydrogen jet engine that could change flights forever.

Elsewhere, Boeing is developing the Sugar Volt – a hybrid electric aircraft of the future with folding wings.

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