A First Glimpse at Flight in 2025

In late 2010, NASA awarded contracts to three teams Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, The Boeing Company to learn advanced concept designs for aircraft that could take to the skies in the year 2025.

At the time of the award, the team gave NASA a sneak peek of the specified design they plan to pursue.

Each design looks very diverse, but all final designs have to meet NASA's goals for less noise, cleaner exhaust and lesser fuel expenditure. Each aircraft has to be able to do all of those things at the same time, which needs a complex dance of tradeoffs between all of the new advanced technologies that will be on these vehicles.

The planned aircraft will also have to run safely in a more efficient air traffic management system.

And each design has to fly up to 85 percent of the speed of sound; cover a range of around 7,000 miles; and carry between 50,000 and 100,000 pounds of payload, either passengers or cargo.