SILENT AIRCRAFT is an initiative by the Cambridge-MIT Institute which could be flying commercially in the not too distant future. It gained maximum media exposure last week but was launched in November 2003. The new concept resembles a giant flying wing, with its developers claiming that it will be completely inaudible once it has left the airport. It will be windowless and streamlined, absorbing the noise from the engines, which will be situated on top of the main passenger cabin. This means that the majority of noise generated by airlines will rise upwards, away from passengers and people on the ground. Those involved include Boeing (the pictures released show a familiar cockpit design), Rolls-Royce, British Airways and the CAA. More media coverage is expected in September when Dr Tom Reynolds, a researcher on the initiative, delivers a lecture at British Association for the Advancement of Science annual gathering in Dublin.
http://www.cambridge-mit.org/research/sai
http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/Events/FestivalofScience