It’s tough enough bringing the first major redesign of a commercial jetliner to fruition—especially when it looks more like something out of The X-Files than a travel brochure. So, to streamline that journey, JetZero—the first commercial blended-wing body (BWB) aircraft—is teaming with Delta as an eventual buyer to troubleshoot operation and design issues from the ground up.
“Our biggest challenge is, `How do you bring an aircraft to market as quickly as possible so that you can have the most impact for your customer?’” says CEO Tom O’Leary, who cofounded JetZero with CTO Mark Page. “We don’t want to zig-zag our way to entry into service. We want to take the cleanest, most direct shot. Because, ultimately, saving time means you’re saving money.”
Not to mention, the environment. The aircraft’s lighter weight and superior aerodynamics aim to deliver the same speed and range as existing midbody jetliners on half the fuel, potentially saving airlines billions of dollars and bringing them closer to an industry goal of zero-carbon flight by 2050. In contrast to the conventional tube and wing design, the tailless BWB combines the wing structure and passenger area, making it look a bit like a flying manta ray. Its shape reduces drag and increases lift, so the plane can cruise at higher altitudes in thinner air on less fuel.
‘We want to think about a world in 2050’
JetZero is targeting the underserved midbody, 250-seat class of carriers, which it plans to manufacture domestically. Since its 2021 founding, the Southern California startup has raised $300 million from investors including NASA, Airbus, Alaska Air, and EasyJet, plus a $235 million award from the U.S. Air Force for a demonstrator plane in 2027. The partnership with Delta gives JetZero access to its Sustainable Skies Lab, an R&D and testing accelerator for more sustainable air travel, and Delta TechOps, which streamlines fleet maintenance management. There, experts help refine the economics, engineering, and workflow through the operations and passenger experience lens, such as airport and gating constraints, loading and unloading, cabin configuration, and interior design.
“It’s really expensive and challenging to bring a new aircraft to market,” says Delta CSO Amelia DeLuca. “What we can do is, from the ground up, say, `This is what you need to be the best-in-class from a customer experience, to work for our employees, to maintain this aircraft when it flies. We look at how we would deploy it, and the specs and seat count we would need to put this into market.”
Adds O’Leary: “It’s figuring out what’s going to work or not as quickly as possible. We don’t see any other way to do that other than have a deep interaction with the customers. Delta knows its products better than the manufacturers because they’re operating them days, weeks, months, years, decades; they’re the real experts on all the things we need to get the plane to a point where you fundamentally de-risk it.”
JetZero and Delta have been collaborating since the startup’s inception in 2021 but opted to publicize their partnership in the wake of Delta’s March 3 Centennial and its message for greater sustainability and customer service during the next hundred years. Jet Zero’s fuel-efficiency also enables greater potential range, opening Delta to more destinations. “We want to think about a world in 2050 where we are flying more sustainably, more efficiently, but also opening up new markets and points of connection,” says DeLuca.
Engineering catnip
A working commercial BWB would realize a long-held aviation dream that began decades ago but never progressed past prototypes—many involving future JetZero engineers. Page, a chief engineer with NASA’s BWB program in the `90s, is considered one of the fathers of BWBs alongside Robert Liebeck, who developed the first prototype for NASA, and Blaine Rawdon, both JetZero technical advisors.
“Delta’s made up of so many aerospace engineers who learned about Mark Page and BWB technology when they went through school,” says DeLuca. “So as soon as you say that we’re talking to Jet Zero—you know, with Mark Page with BWB—they’re like, `Oh my gosh, I’ve always wanted to make this thing fly.’”
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