The Silent Plane

The BBC has an article on the invention of a quieter, greener plane developed by a group of British and US scientists based at the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There's also a description of how it works.

Don't hold your breath on it appearing though, many companies have a vested interested in current airframes and technologies and there are practical reasons, such as access to engines which may not appeal to commercial carriers.

Good idea though and a radical design, nice to see the UK still leads aircraft design. We have a long history of greatness, from the Spitfire, the Merlin engine (which made not only the Spitfire and Hurricane great but the P51 Mustang too), we invented the jet engine, the first mach 3 craft and in the recent Joint Strike Fighter battle between Boeing and Lockheed Martin there was a VTOL component, one team used the current system employed by the Harrier (which the US bought in the end and gave up trying to develop their own) and the other brought in guys from BAe Systems to design theirs!