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Planes that travel faster than the speed of sound using radical 'hybrid wing body' designs could be the future of travel, according to concepts developed by Nasa.

The US space agency has been working with manufacturers to design the next generation of planes that will make travelling around the world faster and more fuel efficient.

Its archive of designs reveals just how different planes may appear in as little as ten years, with radical designs featuring needle-like bodies, sleek fuselages and delta wings. 

This computer-generated image shows a possible future 'flying wing' aircraft in flight over populated areas. This kind of design, produced by Northrop Grumman, would most likely carry cargo and then also carry passengers. Nasa says something like this could be in service in 2025

One of the most popular designs is something called the 'hybrid wing body,' which is sometimes described as a blended wing body, according to a report in Gizmodo. 

In this design, the wing blends seamlessly into the body of the aircraft, which makes it extremely aerodynamic and creates dramatic cuts in fuel consumption, noise and emissions. 

In 2012, Nasa successfully tested the X-48C - a 'hybrid wing-body' plane with a greater internal volume for passengers and cargo. The triangle-shaped plane is reminiscent of spy planes and designed to cut through the air more efficiently.

With a 21 ft (6.54 metre) wingspan, the aircraft was an 8.5 per cent scale model of a heavy-lift, subsonic airplane with a 240-foot wingspan that could be developed in the next 15 to 20 years for military applications. 

Our ability to fly at supersonic speeds over land in civil aircraft depends on the ability to reduce the level of sonic booms. Nasa has been exploring a variety of options for quieting the boom, starting with design concepts and moving through wind tunnel tests to flight tests of new technologies. This rendering of a possible future civil supersonic transport shows a vehicle that is shaped to reduce the sonic shockwave

The 'double bubble' D8 Series future aircraft design concept comes from the research team led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Based on a modified tube and wing with a very wide fuselage to provide extra lift, its low sweep wing reduces drag and weight; the embedded engines sit aft of the wings. The D8 series aircraft would be used for domestic flights and has been designed with a 2030-2035 timeframe

This is radically different to the 'double bubble' D8 Series future aircraft design concept which comes from a research team led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Based on a modified tube and wing with a very wide fuselage to provide extra lift, its low sweep wing reduces drag and weight; the embedded engines sit aft of the wings.  

'The idea there is to take some of the lift that you would normally get from the wings and try and move that to the fuselage,' said Michael Rogers, a research at Nasa's Ames Research Centre. 

'Another thing that's done to enable laminar flow on this vehicle is to reduce the sweep of the wings. It is easier to maintain laminar flow if the wings, instead of being swept back like a lot of modern commercial transports, are more sort of perpendicular to the side of the body of the plane.   

This future aircraft design concept comes from the research team led by GE Aviation. Much lighter and more aerodynamic than current aircraft with the same capacity, the 20-passenger aircraft would reduce fuel consumption and noise and enable business jet-like travel between more than 1,300 airports. It features ultra-quiet turboprop engines and virtual reality windows

The 'Icon-II' future aircraft design concept for supersonic flight over land was created by Boeing with the help of Nasa. Its design is meant to save fuel. It also achieves large reductions in sonic boom noise levels that will meet the target level required to make supersonic flight over land possible

This idea for a possible future aircraft is called a 'hybrid wing body' or sometimes a blended wing body. In this design, the wing blends seamlessly into the body of the aircraft, which makes it extremely aerodynamic and holds great promise for dramatic reductions in fuel consumption, noise and emissions

Aeronautics engineers are also working to define a new standard for low sonic booms. They have been busy gathering data in order to create new, quieter planes that could help overturn the current ban on supersonic flight over land. 

'Lessening sonic booms - shock waves caused by an aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound - is the most significant hurdle to reintroducing commercial supersonic flight,' said Peter Coen, head of the High Speed Project in Nasa's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, Washington.

'Other barriers include high altitude emissions, fuel efficiency and community noise around airports.'

'We are nowhere near the maximum that we can get out of this industry,' added Nasa engineer Ruben Del Rosario. 'There is a lot of work to do.' 

This artist's concept shows a possible future subsonic aircraft using a boxed- or joined-wing configuration to reduce drag and increase fuel efficiency. This design of an aircraft that could enter service in the 2020 timeframe

Boeing's advanced vehicle concept centers around the familiar blended wing body design like the X-48. What makes this design different is the placement of its Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines on the top of the plane's back end, flanked by two vertical tails to shield people on the ground from engine noise

The Silent Efficient Low Emissions Commercial Transport, or Select, future aircraft design comes from the research team led by Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation.Deceptively conventional-looking, the concept features advanced lightweight ceramic composite materials and nanotechnology and shape memory alloys