JetZero is proposing a radical change for the shape of future commercial and military aircraft, a shape that the pioneering startup claims will all by itself provide 50 percent better fuel efficiency and quieter operation: a blended wing body (BWB) design. This is in contrast to the shape currently the norm: a tube-and-wing (TAW) design.
The proof of greater fuel efficiency will come, at least in part, when the full-scale design passes FAA certification, expected to happen in 2030. By 2035, JetZero hopes to achieve near-zero carbon emissions, commonly called “net zero,” from which the company’s name is no doubt derived.
At CES, held in January 2025 in Las Vegas, Siemens announced that JetZero will use the Xcelerator platform not only for aircraft design and simulation but also for manufacturing and production. Manufacturing operations will occur digitally before they occur physically in the planned $4.7 billion “Factory of the Future” in the fields around Greensboro (North Carolina) airport. A digital twin of the aircraft and factory can ensure that every rivet fits and that the aircraft flies as intended.
The factory is expected to be in full production, producing 20 Z4 aircraft a month by the late 2030s, according to a JetZero press release.
“Siemens is giving us the confidence to take a leap, not just a step, in revolutionizing air travel,” said JetZero CEO Tom O’Leary. “Their digital twin and industrial metaverse technologies will be instrumental in helping us design, build and operate the world’s first fully digital aircraft, delivering a better experience for passengers and airlines…”
Overjoyed at the prospect of 14,560 well-paying jobs (50% higher average salary, $89,430 vs $60,195 current average in Guilford County) is North Carolina’s governor, Josh Stein.
When Tim Berry, head of manufacturing, quality and integration at JetZero, talks about airplanes, his voice carries both the confidence of a veteran engineer and the impatience of a startup executive. “We’re not here to take steps,” he said. “We’re here to make leaps.”
With the help of Siemens Xcelerator software platform, JetZero will be able to simulate wind tunnels and actual flight with subscale models in its goal to enter commercial flight by 2030.
“We like to say we’re reshaping aviation, quite literally,” Berry told hosts of Siemens’ StartUp podcast as he explained what a blended wing is not. “This is not a flying wing like a B-2 bomber. It’s not a delta wing. It’s something in between.”
Rethinking the Airframe
Commercial aviation has been stuck in a rut, Berry states. “From the Wright Flyer to the first Boeing 737, there was immense innovation,” he said. “Since the 1960s, most of the advances have come from engine technology. The shape of the airplane hasn’t really changed.”
So here we are with commercial passenger aircraft that all look indistinguishable at a distance, all with the same swept-back wings, tails, and round fuselages. One has to resort to counting engines, which only narrows down the choices. All now share a shape that has become bland and uninteresting — and, from JetZero’s point of view, suboptimal.
JetZero’s design, by contrast with the tube-and-wing norm, is radical. Instead of relying on the wings to provide 100% of the lift, JetZero gets additional lift from the extra-wide, boxy cross-section fuselage. The Z4’s fuselage, which has a flat bottom, contributes to lift, allowing the engines to be smaller. Smaller engines weigh less, of course, contributing to fuel savings and a smaller carbon footprint.
With a tube-and-wing design, the tube provides only drag and zero lift, explains Berry.
The fuselage, which has a conventionally shaped nose but flares to a much wider shape, would have increased the projected frontal area. With drag proportional to projected area, the key to a better lift-to-drag ratio is for lift to increase by a greater proportion than drag. It would help if the shape were more streamlined. JetZero claims a 20-30% better lift-to-drag ratio than traditional tube-and-wing shapes.
While the Z4 was first pitched as a cargo and military aircraft, JetZero looks forward to its use as a commercial passenger aircraft. The super-wide body was hailed as a “living room in the sky” in a local TV news report about a full-scale cabin mockup. The cabin space extends 10 feet past the diameter of the Airbus A380 on both sides, we hear.
JetZero’s design, with its more expansive rectangular cross-section space, should allow airlines the luxury of space. However, airline passengers may not want to get their hopes up. Airlines may cram more seats in that extra space.
JetZero recently announced that United Airlines Ventures, the airline’s corporate venture fund, invested in the company, though neither company will reveal the amount of investment. United has made other investments in the aircraft industry, including Boom Supersonic.
“We have working groups with most of the world’s largest carriers,” Berry said. “Our cabin team has decades of experience. For the first time in their careers, they’re not fighting for inches—they’re painting on a new canvas.”
JetZero is not starting with large long-haul aircraft, instead targeting what Berry calls the “mid-market gap,” which encompasses 200- to 250-seat aircraft. Some of these aircraft models have been phased out, while others have been stretched to a larger capacity by extending the fuselage.
Scaling Down and Up
Blended wings are nothing new. NASA is estimated to have spent more than a billion dollars over decades studying the concept, even flying subscale X-48B and X-48C prototypes. But commercial adoption faltered after structural and manufacturing challenges.
“The core issue is pressurization,” Berry explained. “A tube is an ideal pressure vessel. A blended wing isn’t cylindrical. That creates bi-directional loading stresses in the center body.”
To solve this problem, JetZero draws on NASA’s PRSEUS Structural Concept, which uses “stitched resin-infused composites.” Instead of drilling thousands of fasteners through composite skins, JetZero stitches dry carbon fiber layers together before infusing them with resin. The process produces lighter, damage-tolerant structures with fewer joints and better distribution.
The company is also leveraging lessons from SpaceX and other new-space firms where Berry once worked. Rapid prototyping and iteration are core to JetZero’s culture. “We run a subscale program where we produce different sizes of vehicles,” he said. “We test new configurations, new flight controls, learn fast while the stakes are low.”
JetZero received an airworthiness certificate for its 1/8-scale aircraft in 2024 and plans to have a full-scale demonstrator for the US Air Force by 2027.
Digitally Born
If composites are JetZero’s structural breakthrough, Siemens software is its digital one. Last year, the companies signed a memorandum of understanding, making Siemens Xcelerator the backbone of JetZero’s design and manufacturing environment.
“It’s not really a digital transformation for us—we are digitally born,” Berry said. “From advanced CFD simulations to model-based systems engineering, to full digital twins of every aircraft we build, Siemens tools let us move faster and collaborate better.”
Design team members are distributed across Long Beach, the company’s headquarters, and remote sites. All share a common database with Siemens’ PLM software, Teamcenter. Manufacturing engineers will use Plant Simulation and NX Line Designer to model the entire factory virtually before breaking ground.
Berry calls the vision a “digital hive mind factory.” Every aircraft will have a living digital twin tied into the production system, maintenance logs, and even smart building controls. “It’s the digital thread that connects design, manufacturing, sustainment, and infrastructure,” he said. “We’re building in a year that starts with a 20, not a 19.”
Navigating Certification
For regulators, JetZero emphasizes continuity as much as novelty. “This is a Part 25 aircraft,” Berry said, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration’s airworthiness standards for transport planes, 14 CFR Part 25. “It uses today’s gates, today’s speeds, today’s altitudes. The only thing new is the shape.”
To bolster its certification campaign, JetZero recently added Steve Dickson to its advisory board, according to a company-issued press release. In addition to being a former FAA Administrator, Dickson also served in the US Air Force as an F-15 fighter pilot.
“We feel confident we can meet Part 25 as written,” Berry said.
A Southern California Home
JetZero’s headquarters at Long Beach Airport is surrounded by aviation industry giants and is steeped in aviation innovation. The spirit of McDonnell Douglas still lingers.
“It’s inspirational,” he said. “We could throw a rock and hit the old McDonnell Douglas plant. There’s immense talent here. And the city of Long Beach has been a great partner, even letting us use closed taxiways for testing.”
NASA as Partner
NASA, one of the early champions of the blended wing, has become a hands-on partner. The agency sits in on JetZero’s design reviews and shares expertise from decades of structural research.
“We’re not just reading papers,” Berry said. “We’re working with the people who developed the technology. The tribal knowledge they bring is invaluable.”
Culture and Talent
Berry knows firsthand how hard it is to marry startup agility with aerospace rigor. He spent years leading manufacturing teams at SpaceX, then at Vast, a space-station startup. At JetZero, he preaches urgency and accountability.
“Some people call it a maniacal sense of urgency,” he said. “You think in seconds, minutes, hours—not days. And if you know about a problem, it’s your problem.”
For new engineers, JetZero prizes first-principles thinking and resilience over credentials alone. “We want people who boil problems down to basics, who take ownership, who aren’t afraid to ask simple questions,” Berry said.
“And having a sense of humor helps,” he concludes with a smile.