Not only do they look futuristic as anything but blended wing plane designs could have 20% lower fuel consumption and be less noisy for the people they passed over because of the engines’ placement on top of the wing. NASA engineers believe they are close to overcoming all the stability issues inherent in a blended wing’s lack of a tail, using curved flaps along the edge of each wing and rudders on each wingtip and have tested a 5% scale model of the design in a wind tunnel.

Technorati tag: Aeroplane, Blended wing