The future of commercial aviation could be taking shape inside a hangar next to Long Beach Airport.
This is where Long Beach startup JetZero Inc. is developing a “flying wing” aircraft that’s shaped like a B-2 Stealth Bomber, can seat up to 250 passengers and fly across the country using up to 50% less fuel.
If successful, the new plane would mark the first fuel-efficient aircraft to hit the mainline commercial aviation market. Many of the prior efforts to produce more energy-efficient aircrafts have involved zero-emission or hybrid power trains; they are initially using smaller planes aimed at the short-haul market with a range of less than 500 miles.
“Until now, there’s been no next-generation plane in the middle-market, capable of carrying up to 250 passengers and traveling in the 3,000-mile to 5,000-mile range,” said Tom O’Leary, JetZero’s chief executive. “Ours is the most efficient airplane possible at this time.”
Interest from airlines
Instead of focusing on the engine or the powertrain of the plane, JetZero is concentrating on the overall design. This means the all-wing configuration that has greater lift and improved airflow to reduce drag, thereby achieving up to 50% fuel savings compared to the conventional tube-and-wing design of all commercial jets flying today. And because the jet engines are mounted on top, much of the noise they generate would be deflected away from the ground.
On the inside, the all-wing configuration allows for larger cabin space and more varied seating arrangements, improving passenger access and comfort. These include wider pathways, modular setups, more entrances and exits, and higher ceilings that allow for more carry-on luggage capacity, among other things.
“Just changing the shape of the aircraft addresses every major need this industry faces,” when it comes to reducing fuel costs and improving the passenger experience, O’Leary said.
He added that all this can be done using existing engines and equipment.
Already three major commercial airlines have either invested in, or placed orders with, JetZero, even though the first test flight of the aircraft, known for now as the Z4, isn’t planned until late 2027:
• Alaska Airlines, a unit of Seattle-based Alaska Air Group Inc., announced last summer it was investing in JetZero. The investment includes an option to place an order for an unspecified number of JetZero planes;
• Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. announced in March it was also investing an unspecified sum in JetZero; and
• Chicago-based United Airlines Inc. announced in late April that it is also investing an unspecified sum in JetZero; its investment includes a path to order 100 JetZero aircraft with an option to purchase another 100 planes.
Air Force contract
These deals are just on the commercial side. Since 2023, JetZero has also had a $235 million contract with the United States Air Force to fast-track the development of a full-scale demonstration plane. The Air Force plans to use the plane both as a military cargo transport and as a long-range refueling aircraft.
“Right now, the most critical need for the Air Force is for a longer-range refueling aircraft,” O’Leary said.
The Air Force has been deploying in recent years the Boeing KC 46 Pegasus refueling tanker based on the Boeing 767 aircraft, with a range of up to 7,000 miles, though considerably less with a full payload. O’Leary said JetZero’s aircraft, would use up to 50% less fuel than the KC 46, allowing for a significant boost in range. This could be crucial as the Air Force and other military branches try to boost their force projection to the Western Pacific to counter the rising military threat from China.
Under this contract, JetZero has committed to having a demonstrator plane ready for a test flight by the end of 2027.
JetZero also has a $9 million grant from NASA and an $8 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration. Both of these grants are in support of the company’s main contract with the Air Force.
Billions needed
In all, including both the federal contracts and the airline investment, JetZero has raised more than $300 million to date. O’Leary said the company is in the midst of a series B raise with a target “well into the nine-figure range.”
But it’s going to take billions of dollars to produce enough planes to meet the potential orders that have already been announced.
“We’re talking in the range of $5 billion to $10 billion,” said Ben Marcus, co-founder and managing partner of Up.Partners, a Santa Monica-based venture capital and venture studio firm that helps build companies.
JetZero is not the only company in the race to develop a flying wing.
San Diego-based Natilus Inc. is developing two such planes. Known as the Kona, one aircraft would be for regional cargo flights. The other one, called Horizon, would be for the airline passenger market. The Horizon aircraft, unveiled last fall, would have a passenger capacity of about 200 and a range of about 3,000 miles, enough to cover most transcontinental flights. These aircraft would use about 25% less fuel than traditional planes. Natilus has said it is targeting 2030 for the first commercial flights.
Given this, JetZero has a lot riding on the 2027 test of its full-scale demonstrator plane that it’s preparing to build. This coming week, it faces a critical design review in conjunction with the Air Force and NASA.
“The moment that demonstrator plane flies, it will unlock a lot of capital,” Marcus said.
But if the demonstration test falls behind schedule or is not fully successful, then JetZero could lose its edge in the race to come up with a more fuel-efficient plane for the transcontinental market.
All-wing design dates back 30 years
The benefits of an all-wing configuration have long been recognized for its increased surface area to generate more lift and improved air flow that reduces drag. Sporadic attempts were made at various points over the past 100 years, but the tests either failed or the concept abandoned as the wing-and-tube design took hold.
The most serious effort at what became known in the industry as the “blended wing” approach took place in the early 1990s at McDonnell Douglas (since acquired by Boeing Co.), in partnership with NASA and Stanford University. That effort went as far as the successful test of a 17-foot scale model. But McDonnell Douglas and then Boeing declined to invest the capital necessary to develop and test a full-scale plane.
“The major aircraft manufacturers have little incentive to invest in something as revolutionary as this because it has such potential to cannibalize their existing business,” Marcus said.
Since aircrafts can have lifespans of up to 30 years, if the prospect of a new and better technology is in the offing a few years out, airlines may be unwilling to buy new conventional aircraft, he added.
That leaves the field open to new players – provided they can raise the capital.
In 2020, Mark Page, who led the McDonnell Douglas design effort, teamed up with O’Leary, a serial entrepreneur in both the aviation and auto industries, to launch JetZero.
Dual-market approach
The new company targeted both the commercial and the military markets from the outset.
On the commercial side, Marcus said there has been a growing frustration among commercial airlines about the lack of environment-friendly alternatives to traditional aircraft. He noted that at European airlines especially, there have been increased incidents of “flight shaming,” where environmentally-conscious consumers have targeted greenhouse gas emissions from planes. Switching to biomass-based sustainable aviation fuel has yielded only incremental benefits and is still more expensive than conventional fuel, he said.
Another factor spurring airline interest since the pandemic has been the delay in getting new conventional tube and wing planes into operation as Boeing has grappled with multiple issues, including quality control, supply chain disruptions and a culture that has been sharply criticized for not focusing enough on safety. All this has led to a backlog of nearly 11 years from the time an order is received to delivery of the plane, according to a recent analysis from Forecast International. (Airbus, the European manufacturing consortium, has a similar backlog.)
JetZero also plans to target the air freight market, with a plane similar in interior design to the military transport.
Early 2030s for first commercial flights
O’Leary said that assuming the 2027 test flight for the Air Force is successful, the next target will be FAA certification for commercial use. “We hope to achieve that by the end of 2030,” he said.
After that, assuming sufficient funds can be raised to scale up the manufacturing process, the first all-wing planes could be put into service by airlines in the early 2030s.
“It is going to be a gradual process,” he said.
The hope is that 10 years from now, the number of JetZero-made planes will number in the low hundreds – “enough that general passengers will use them on a regular basis.”
