Aviation dark-horse Otto Aviation has revealed their futuristic Celera 800 design that uses the concept of laminar flow to achieve efficiency and carbon emissions reduction.
In 2017, Otto Aviation began developing the Celera 500, a test bed that explored the technology and designs needed to sustain laminar flow in flight. According to the company, the test program resulted in an efficiency increase of 59%.
The program paved the way for the Celera 800, which is described as a transonic super-laminar (TSL) design.
"Supersonic aircraft can achieve twice the speed of conventional aircraft," Otto Aviation states. "Similarly, transonic super-laminar (TSL) aircraft can achieve twice the efficiency of traditional aircraft through laminar flow.
"Laminar flow is a fluid dynamics phenomenon found in nature. It is characterised by the smooth and organized flow of fluids. When fluids, or air, flow over surfaces in laminar flow (versus turbulent flow), skin-friction drag is reduced by up to 80%."
Otto Aviation also says the the Celera 800 will run on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which when compounded by a 60% reduction in fuel burn at 434 knots, gives the Celera a direct operating cost of half that of comparable aircraft. The company is predicting carbon emissions of 36 gm per seat-mile.
Otto Aviation stunned the aviation world in September 2020, when it revealed a working prototype of the Celera 500 that had already completed 31 test flights.