NASA is developing a new type of wing that can save commercial airlines billions of dollars every year and early tests look very promising Here’s what we know.
Commercial airlines spend a lot on fuel each year. Some estimates for 2024 put the figure at $291 billion, and that’s up from $271 billion in 2023. We can only assume that number climbed even higher last year in 2025. But NASA may have found a new wing technology that could significantly cut those costs for commercial airplanes. and all without leaving the ground. During last month’s testing of a radical new wing design that reduces aerodynamic drag, NASA’s research jet was able to reach speeds of 144 mph without ever leaving the runway.
For the test, engineers mounted a 3-foot-tall scale model of the innovative new Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) concept underneath an F-15B research aircraft. This test let researchers expose the design to real-world airflow conditions without needing to create a full aircraft wing (let alone a whole new test plane).
