Alaska Airlines announced on August 13, 2024, that it has invested an undisclosed amount in JetZero, a US startup which is developing a revolutionary blended-wing-body (BWB) low emissions aircraft.
This investment has been channeled through Alaska Star Ventures (ASV), the venture capital arm of Alaska Airlines, which has a mandate to invest in technologies that can help the carrier reach its goal to become carbon neutral by 2040.
JetZero claims that its future aircraft design can reduce fuel burn and carbon emissions by 50% thanks to its aerodynamic efficiency.
The blended-wing-body (BWB) concept, in which fuselage and wings are fused in a single structure, has been researched since at least the 1940s and, at some point in the 1990s, Boeing seriously considered it as the basis for a new airliner, before finally discarding the idea.
However, the search for a new generation of clean-sheet aircraft able to deliver substantial efficiency improvements and carbon emissions reductions has renewed interest in this structural solution.
In 2021, Airbus included a blended-wing-body design in its ZEROe program to design a new generation of hydrogen-powered aircraft. And, in 2023, shortly after its presentation at the Paris Air Show 2023, the United States Air Force awarded JetZero a contract to develop and build a prototype of this futuristic-looking aircraft.
Alaska Airlines also confirmed that, by investing in JetZero, it also has the option to be first in line to acquire the aircraft in the future.
