The concept of blended-wing aircraft – where fuselage and wing are all one structure – is not new. But this radical design might soon be a credible concept for airliners.

In March 2025, a small V-shaped remote-controlled aircraft took off for the first time from the Pendleton UAS Range in eastern Oregon. Codenamed Steve (for Scaled Test Vehicle), the unmanned vehicle flew for only 16 seconds on its first flight, but that didn't matter.

Steve's first and subsequent flights were the first steps on a path that its creator, Outbound Aerospace, hopes will lead to the launch of a radical new 200 to 250-seat blended-wing airliner in the 2030s. With a 171ft (52m) wingspan around eight times that of Steve – this airliner that has already been named the Olympic.

The idea that the wings and fuselage of an aircraft can be smoothly blended, with no clear dividing line, to increase aerodynamic efficiency dates back more than 100 years. In 1924, the first recorded blended-wing aircraft made its first flight – and then crashed.

Since then, blended-wing technology has primarily been left to the US military to develop for their bombers. Now the aviation industry's pressing need to reduce emissions may mean the time has come for the first blended-wing commercial airliner. But can startups like Outbound Aerospace overcome the serious challenges that remain?

Steve's flights are intended to show the Seattle-based startup's innovative blended-wing aircraft design works, and that the company's "novel" manufacturing technology can deliver the new type of mid-market airliner faster and cheaper than the current big plane-makers like Airbus and Boeing.

"We went from a clean sheet design to a demonstrator in about 12 months," says Jake Armenta, a former Boeing engineer, and co-founder and chief technology officer of Outbound Aerospace. He believes his team has shown they can cut down the 5-10 years or more it can take to develop a commercial aircraft. "The aircraft flying for the first time was exactly nine months from the day we opened our factory doors for the first time."

Now their technology demonstrator is finding a new use as a cargo drone.

"Now Steve has proved interesting to the US Department of Defense, and other, civilian customers, because it has a large cargo bay and could be cheaper than conventional designs. So that is the first product we're now bringing into market."

"We believe we can drastically reduce the time and capital expense of the development of these aircraft but it's still going to be very expensive," adds Aaron Boysen, Outbound's director of business development. "We have to earn revenue earlier than 10 years down the road."

Despite scepticism from investors about the feasibility of their plans, Outbound has managed to raise around $1m (£765,000) in pre-seed funding so far. This money is the first investment a startup receives to turn ideas into reality, and it has allowed them to hire five full-time staff, contractors and part-timers as needed.

Outbound isn't the only company going down this road. There are at least two other start-ups in the race to build the first blended-wing airliner, which has been "a goal for so long that some people say it has become the 'holy grail of aviation'," says analyst and commentator Bill Sweetman.

The gleaming computer-generated imagery of how the Olympic may look in the 2030s looks very different from the actual tube-and-wing airliners that Boeing and Airbus currently produce. Often called flying wings, these aircraft are more aerodynamically efficient than conventional airliners.

If a company can get a blended-wing design right then they argue that Nasa’s research suggests it might burn up to 50% less fuel by using the latest technology, reduce emissions by a similar amount, noise by a significant amount, do this with cabins that might be 40% larger, and, as a result, may conceivably open up new air routes. While

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