NASA Tests Technology Offering Potential Fuel Savings for Commercial Aviation

NASA Tests Technology Offering Potential Fuel Savings for Commercial Aviation

4 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)

A NASA F-15 research aircraft is parked on a ramp at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, with an experimental wing design mounted beneath its fuselage. The gray and silver test article is positioned vertically, resembling a ventral fin.
NASA’s Cross Flow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow test article is mounted beneath the agency’s F-15 research aircraft ahead of the design’s high-speed taxi test on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2026, at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The 3-foot-tall scale model is designed to increase a phenomenon known as laminar flow and reduce drag, improving efficiency in large, swept wings like those found on most commercial aircraft.
NASA/Christopher LC Clark

NASA researchers successfully completed a high-speed taxi test of a scale model of a design that could make future aircraft more efficient by improving how air flows across a wing’s surface, saving fuel and money.

On Jan. 12, the Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) test article reached speeds of approximately 144 mph, marking its first major milestone. The 3-foot-tall scale model looks like a fin mounted under the belly of one of the agency’s research F-15B testbed jets. However, it’s a scale model of a wing, mounted vertically instead of horizontally. The setup allows NASA to flight-test the wing design using an existing aircraft.

The CATNLF concept aims to increase a phenomenon known as laminar flow and reduce wind resistance, also known as drag.

A NASA computational study conducted between 2014 and 2017 estimated that applying a CATNLF wing design to a large, long-range aircraft like the Boeing 777 could achieve annual fuel savings of up to 10%.  Although quantifying the exact savings this technology could achieve is difficult, the study indicates it could approach millions of dollars per aircraft each year.

A NASA F-15 research aircraft is parked on a ramp at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, with an experimental wing design mounted beneath its fuselage. The gray and silver test article is positioned vertically, resembling a ventral fin.
NASA’s Cross Flow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow test article is mounted beneath the agency’s F-15 research aircraft ahead of the design’s high-speed taxi test on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2026, at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The 3-foot-tall scale model is designed to increase a phenomenon known as laminar flow and reduce drag, improving efficiency in large, swept wings like those found on most commercial aircraft.
NASA/Christopher LC Clark

“Even small improvements in efficiency can add up to significant reductions in fuel burn and emissions for commercial airlines,” said Mike Frederick, principal investigator for CATNLF at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

Reducing drag is key to improving efficiency. During flight, a thin cover of air known as the boundary layer forms very near an aircraft’s surface. In this area, most aircraft experience increasing friction, also known as turbulent flow, where air abruptly changes direction. These abrupt changes increase drag and fuel consumption. CATNLF increases laminar flow, or the smooth motion of air, within the boundary layer. The result is more efficient aerodynamics, reduced friction, and less fuel burn.

The CATNLF testing falls under NASA’s Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project, a part of the agency’s Integrated Aviation Systems Program under the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The concept of was first developed by NASA’s Advanced Air Transport Technology project, and in 2019, NASA Armstrong researchers developed the initial shape and parameters of the model. The design was later refined for efficiency at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

“Laminar flow technology has been studied and used on airplanes to reduce drag for many decades now, but laminar flow has historically been limited in application,” said Michelle Banchy, Langley principal investigator for CATNLF.

A NASA F-15 research aircraft is parked on a ramp at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Ground crew work beneath the aircraft on an experimental test article, resembling a ventral fin, mounted under the aircraft’s fuselage.
NASA ground crew prepares the agency’s F-15 research aircraft and Cross Flow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) test article ahead of its first high-speed taxi test on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2026, at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The CATNLF design aims to reduce drag on wing surfaces to improve efficiency and, in turn, reduce fuel burn.
NASA/Christopher LC Clark

This limitation is due to crossflow, an aerodynamic phenomenon on angled surfaces that can prematurely end laminar flow. While large, swept wings like those found on most commercial aircraft provide aerodynamic efficiencies, crossflow tendencies remain.

In a 2018 wind tunnel test at Langley, researchers confirmed that the CATNLF design successfully achieved prolonged laminar flow.

“After the positive results in the wind tunnel test, NASA saw enough promise in the technology to progress to flight testing,” Banchy said. “Flight testing allows us to increase the size of the model and fly in air that has less turbulence than a wind tunnel environment, which are great things for studying laminar flow.”

NASA Armstrong’s F-15B testbed aircraft provides the necessary flight environment for laminar flow testing, Banchy said. The aircraft enables researchers to address fundamental questions about the technology while keeping costs lower than alternatives, such as replacing a test aircraft’s wing with a full-scale CATNLF model or building a dedicated demonstrator aircraft.

A white and blue NASA F-15 research aircraft taxis down a runway at Edwards Air Force Base with an experimental wing design mounted beneath the fuselage, resembling a ventral fin. In the background, a desert landscape with mountains and tan buildings stretches as the aircraft moves past.
NASA’s Cross Flow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF) scale model completes its first major milestone – high-speed taxi test – Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2026, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA’s F-15 research aircraft, with the 3-foot-tall test article mounted on its underside, reached speeds of approximately 144 mph during testing. If successful, the technology could be applied to future commercial aircraft to improve efficiency and potentially reduce fuel consumption.
NASA/Christopher LC Clark

CATNLF currently focuses on commercial aviation, which has steadily increased over the past 20 years, with passenger numbers expected to double in the next 20, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization. Commercial passenger aircraft fly at subsonic speeds, or slower than the speed of sound.

“Most of us fly subsonic, so that’s where this technology would have the greatest impact right now,” Frederick said. NASA’s previous computational studies also confirmed that technology like CATNLF could be adapted for supersonic application.

In the coming weeks, CATNLF is expected to begin its first flight, kicking off a series of test flights designed to evaluate the design’s performance and capabilities in flight.

Looking ahead, NASA’s work on CATNLF could lay the groundwork for more efficient commercial air travel and might one day extend similar capabilities to supersonic flight, improving fuel efficiency at even higher speeds.

“The CATNLF flight test at NASA Armstrong will bring laminar technology one step closer to being implemented on next-generation aircraft,” Banchy said.

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Dede Dinius

NASA’s Artemis II Rocket and Spacecraft Make Their Way to Launch Pad

NASA’s Artemis II Rocket and Spacecraft Make Their Way to Launch Pad

NASA's Artemis II SLS rocket - with its distinctive butterscotch orange-brown color- and Orion spacecraft are on top of a massive platform. The platform has a banner with the Artemis logo on it on the left and an American flag on the right. The rocket and platform are moved by an immense machine called the crawler-transporter, which has treads like a tank. The view is from the ground up, so the deep blue sky is the background for most of this picture.
NASA/Sam Lott

This Jan. 17, 2026, image shows NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft rolling out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s massive Crawler-Transporter, upgraded for the Artemis program, carries the powerful SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B in preparation for the Artemis II mission.

Moving at a maximum speed of just 0.82 mph, the crawler carried the towering Moon rocket and spacecraft slowly but surely toward the pad, reaching its destination at 6:42 p.m. EST after a nearly 12-hour journey. The Artemis II test flight will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon and back. It is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions to the Moon’s surface, leading to a sustained presence on the Moon that will help the agency prepare to send the first astronauts – Americans – to Mars.

See more photos from the rollout.

Image credit: NASA/Sam Lott

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Monika Luabeya

NASA Webb Finds Young Sun-Like Star Forging, Spewing Common Crystals

NASA Webb Finds Young Sun-Like Star Forging, Spewing Common Crystals

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NASA Webb Finds Young Sun-Like Star Forging, Spewing Common Crystals

A rectangular image of the Serpens Nebula with black vertical rectangles at the bottom left and top right to indicate missing data. A young star-forming region is filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is filled with mostly orange dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right at the same angle. At center-left is a larger star that is circled. This star has Webb’s signature diffraction spikes, but along the right also has an arc of white, with the circular edge starting at the center of the star. Mostly blue gas fills the center. There is a particularly bright central star. The gas to the right is a darker orange. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field. The brightest sources have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s 2024 NIRCam image shows protostar EC 53 circled. Researchers using new data from Webb’s MIRI proved that crystalline silicates form in the hottest part of the disk of gas and dust surrounding the star — and may be shot to the system’s edges.
Credits:
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (NASA-JPL), Joel Green (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own solar system contain crystalline silicates, since crystals require intense heat to form and these “dirty snowballs” spend most of their time in the ultracold Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. Now, looking outside our solar system, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has returned the first conclusive evidence that links how those conditions are possible. The telescope clearly showed for the first time that the hot, inner part of the disk of gas and dust surrounding a very young, actively forming star is where crystalline silicates are forged. Webb also revealed a strong outflow that is capable of carrying the crystals to the outer edges of this disk. Compared to our own fully formed, mostly dust-cleared solar system, the crystals would be forming approximately between the Sun and Earth.

Webb’s sensitive mid-infrared observations of the protostar, cataloged EC 53, also show that the powerful winds from the star’s disk are likely catapulting these crystals into distant locales, like the incredibly cold edge of its protoplanetary disk where comets may eventually form.

“EC 53’s layered outflows may lift up these newly formed crystalline silicates and transfer them outward, like they’re on a cosmic highway,” said Jeong-Eun Lee, the lead author of a new paper in Nature and a professor at Seoul National University in South Korea. “Webb not only showed us exactly which types of silicates are in the dust near the star, but also where they are both before and during a burst.”

Image: Protostar EC 53 in the Serpens Nebula (NIRCam Image)

A rectangular image of the Serpens Nebula with black vertical rectangles at the bottom left and top right to indicate missing data. A young star-forming region is filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is filled with mostly orange dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right at the same angle. At center-left is a larger star that is circled. This star has Webbu2019s signature diffraction spikes, but along the right also has an arc of white, with the circular edge starting at the center of the star. Mostly blue gas fills the center. There is a particularly bright central star. The gas to the right is a darker orange. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field. The brightest sources have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s 2024 NIRCam image shows protostar EC 53 circled. Researchers using new data from Webb’s MIRI proved that crystalline silicates form in the hottest part of the disk of gas and dust surrounding the star — and may be shot to the system’s edges.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (NASA-JPL), Joel Green (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

The team used Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) to collect two sets of highly detailed spectra to identify specific elements and molecules, and determine their structures. Next, they precisely mapped where everything is, both when EC 53 is “quiet” (but still gradually “nibbling” at its disk) and when it’s more active (what’s known as an outburst phase).

This star, which has been studied by this team and others for decades, is highly predictable. (Other young stars have erratic outbursts, or their outbursts last for hundreds of years.) About every 18 months, EC 53 begins a 100-day, bombastic burst phase, kicking up the pace and absolutely devouring nearby gas and dust, while ejecting some of its intake as powerful jets and outflows. These expulsions may fling some of the newly formed crystals into the outskirts of the star’s protoplanetary disk. 

“Even as a scientist, it is amazing to me that we can find specific silicates in space, including forsterite and enstatite near EC 53,” said Doug Johnstone, a co-author and a principal research officer at the National Research Council of Canada. “These are common minerals on Earth. The main ingredient of our planet is silicate.” For decades, research has also identified crystalline silicates not only on comets in our solar system, but also in distant protoplanetary disks around other, slightly older stars — but couldn’t pinpoint how they got there. With Webb’s new data, researchers now better understand how these conditions might be possible.

“It’s incredibly impressive that Webb can not only show us so much, but also where everything is,” said Joel Green, a co-author and an instrument scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. “Our research team mapped how the crystals move throughout the system. We’ve effectively shown how the star creates and distributes these superfine particles, which are each significantly smaller than a grain of sand.”

Webb’s MIRI data also clearly shows the star’s narrow, high-velocity jets of hot gas near its poles, and the slightly cooler and slower outflows that stem from the innermost and hottest area of the disk that feeds the star. The image above, which was taken by another Webb instrument, NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), shows one set of winds and scattered light from EC 53’s disk as a white semi-circle angled toward the right. Its winds also flow in the opposite direction, roughly behind the star, but in near-infrared light, this region appears dark. Its jets are too tiny to pick out.

Image: Silicate Crystallization and Movement Near Protostar EC 53 (Illustration)

Illustration shows a small yellow sphere at center surrounded from upper left to lower right by a semi-circle that has the rough shape of half a pancake with rounded edges. The pancake has a hole in the middle and doesn’t touch the star. The semi-circle is bright yellow closest to the star, orange toward the center, and redder at its round edges. Several large teal arrows are within the semi-circle. Two arrows start in the area nearest the star at the left and right edges of the yellow disk. Each arrow goes immediately up and points outward to the left or right. Two additional large teal arrows appear at far left and far right, following a swooping pattern begun by the first arrows, with each pointing down to the farthest edges of the pancake. Small teal dots begin where the arrows begin, following the arrows, but also are embedded within the pancake forming a straight edge from the inner to the outer regions. A faint red haze extends from the star in the lower left diagonal and the background is black.
This illustration represents half the disk of gas and dust surrounding the protostar EC 53. Stellar outbursts periodically form crystalline silicates, which are launched up and out to the edges of the system, where comets and other icy rocky bodies may eventually form.
Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI)

Look ahead

EC 53 is still “wrapped” in dust and may be for another 100,000 years. Over millions of years, while a young star’s disk is heavily populated with teeny grains of dust and pebbles, an untold number of collisions will occur that may slowly build up a range of larger rocks, eventually leading to the formation of terrestrial and gas giant planets. As the disk settles, both the star itself and any rocky planets will finish forming, the dust will largely clear (no longer obscuring the view), and a Sun-like star will remain at the center of a cleared planetary system, with crystalline silicates “littered” throughout.

EC 53 is part of the Serpens Nebula, which lies 1,300 light-years from Earth and is brimming with actively forming stars.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

To learn more about Webb, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/webb

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The following sections contain links to download this article’s images and videos in all available resolutions followed by related information links, media contacts, and if available, research paper and Spanish translation links.

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Read more: Webb’s Star Formation Discoveries

Explore more: Image Tour: Herbig-Haro 46/47

Read more: First-of-Its-Kind Detection Made in Striking New Webb Image

Read more: Infographic: Recipe for planet formation

Explore more: Star formation in the Eagle Nebula

Video: Exploring Star and Planet Formation

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Last Updated
Jan 21, 2026
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Claire Blome
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

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Fires Erupt in South-Central Chile 

Fires Erupt in South-Central Chile 

Brownish-gray smoke plumes billow to the northwest over the Pacific Ocean from wildfires near the Chilean city of Concepción.
January 18, 2026

Wildland fires broke out amid hot and dry conditions in south-central Chile in mid-January 2026, prompting evacuations and causing extensive damage to infrastructure. As of January 20, the spate of deadly fires had burned more than 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) in the country’s Biobío and Ñuble regions, according to Chile’s National Forestry Corporation.

The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of smoke billowing from multiple fires on January 18. Dozens of active fires in the area prompted the evacuation of 50,000 people and destroyed more than 300 homes, according to a January 19 report from Chile’s U.N. Resident Coordinator’s Office. Aerial and ground-based photographs showed neighborhoods in Concepción charred in the aftermath.

Gusty winds, along with temperatures that exceeded 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) in places, fanned the flames and hampered firefighting efforts, according to news reports. Chile’s president declared a state of catastrophe in the Biobío and Ñuble regions, allowing more resources to go toward battling the blazes and assisting affected communities.

Other parts of South America also faced hot and dry conditions during the 2025–2026 summer, likely priming vegetation to burn. About 650 kilometers (400 miles) south of Concepción, firefighters in Argentina battled wildfires in and around Los Alerces National Park, home to rare stands of long-lived cypress trees.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

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Expedition 74 Spends Tuesday on Microbiology, Lab Maintenance

Expedition 74 Spends Tuesday on Microbiology, Lab Maintenance

A red-yellow airglow blankets Earth's horizon as the city lights of southwestern Europe and North Africa sparkle in contrast to the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea that separates the two continents. The International Space Station was orbiting 262 miles above the Atlantic at approximately 7:47 p.m. local time when this photograph was taken.
A red-yellow airglow blankets Earth’s horizon as the city lights of southwestern Europe and North Africa sparkle in contrast to the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea that separates the two continents.
NASA

Microbiology research to protect astronaut health and spacecraft hardware topped the science schedule aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday. Earth observations and life support maintenance rounded out the day for the Expedition 74 trio.

NASA Flight Engineer Chris Williams worked throughout his shift safely processing samples of a bacterial pathogen inside the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox. Williams was exploring a way to prevent the formation of biofilms, or a layer of microorganisms, anywhere water is found on a spacecraft where they pose human health risks and can damage equipment. The microbe samples are housed inside a specialized cell culture chamber, called a BioCell, and exposed to different levels of ultraviolet light to learn how to inhibit microbial growth and reduce reliance on chemical disinfectants. Results may lead to safer life support and medical systems, more durable spacecraft materials, and healthier humans on and off the Earth.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergei Mikaev spent his shift supporting a pair of ongoing Earth observation studies and servicing station equipment. Mikaev first deconfigured an automated overnight photography session that captured images of Earth’s nighttime atmospheric glow in near-ultraviolet wavelengths. The airglow is caused by atoms and molecules that are excited by solar ultraviolet radiation during the day and then release the energy as light at night. Next, he pointed a camera out a station window to photograph landmarks across Africa and the Middle East. Researchers will use the data to understand how natural disasters affect the surrounding landscape. Mikaev ended his day cleaning fans inside the Progress 92 cargo craft and transferring water between station tanks and inspecting water valves for microbes.

Station Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov assisted Mikaev during his second Earth photography session setting up and installing the hardware then downloading the imagery for analysis on the ground. Kud-Sverchkov completed his shift with orbital plumbing transferring fluids and refilling tanks before cleaning fan filters in the Zarya module.

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Mark A. Garcia