NASA Shows STARC-ABL Aircraft Concepts With Fuel-Saving Fans

On land electric vehicles are developed rapidly to reduce air pollution. Some countries like India are determined to ban conventional engine vehicles as early as 2030. In the transport sector, electric fly-operators like Uber and NASA developed more and more. Commercial aircraft still have no electricity. Therefore, efforts to reduce fuel consumption have also been made by NASA.

The concept for STARC-ABL aircraft (Single-aisle Turboelectric AiRCraft with an Aft Boundary-Layer) is shown by them today. The two-engine Boeing 737 is equipped with an electric fan at the back of the ship. This electric-powered fan will inhale the air that moves on the body of the aircraft and accelerates it to the back of the plane. This will result in small thrust which in turn reduces fuel consumption by up to 10%.
In normal use, it can contribute 20% thrust when the plane departs and 45% thrust when the plane is flying horizontally. The main engines under smaller wings can then be used. The STARC-ABL concept will be tested at their Electric Aircraft Testbed (NEAT) laboratory in Ohio.
This STARC-ABL convention is one of the few concepts of the future aircraft being tested by NASA. Previously we reported the aircraft program to produce QueSST supersonic aircraft (Quiet Super Sonic Transport) and aircraft with thin wings that reduced fuel consumption by up to 50%.

Reference: NASA