For those like me that take an interest in things that fly you might find this interesting:

http://www.space.com/14438-photos-future-airplanes-nasa-21st-century-aircraft.html

Some brilliant design concepts, would love to see some of them in action 

I really like the 2 green and white ones,  and especially the 2 wing designed one in the first image.
Thanks for sharing this find

Got to say the designs all seem to look really beautiful and modern when compared to aircraft we have today, lets hope we see some of them in our skies in the not too distant future.

No problem Sybershot, I love aircraft so happy to share when I find things like this and will continue to do so.

I'm interested to see the blended wing bodies in there, this is tech that has been proposed for ages and is realistically the most likely that we will see in the near future

Here is an article on NASA and Blended wing bodies

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/blended-wing-body-is-nasas-green-focus-339194/

QuoteNo problem Sybershot, I love aircraft so happy to share when I find things like this and will continue to do so.

  I'll be on the lookout and I'll  be reading them   
I wanted to be a fighter pilot like my great grandfather when I was growing up, Sadly to find out when I was in high school that I could not pilot or copilot any aircraft for the military for I wore glasses    It kind of worked out for the best though, for now I have a great wife and 4 great kids. 
  I love taking my kids to air shows, and reading about new aircraft. brings out the kid in me I guess 

That makes two of us 

My old man was a radar technician on Canberra bombers in the 50's, we used to go to airshows quite a bit when I was a kid, as a result I was hooked on all things that fly.

You just can't beat the sound of Merlin engine though.......

QuoteYou just can't beat the sound of Merlin engine though.......

The merlin jet engine does have a sweet sound, that I can justify  I heard that the old RR v12 sounded sweet as well from a old friend of mine, I await to to hear one of those fly by me one day 

to be fair I meant the RR V12 from WW2, I didn't know there was a jet Merlin!!!

if you have seen a P51-D mustang you've heard the piston Merlin, although built by Packard rather than rolls, in fact the mustang was a failure until married with the Merlin engine :-)

Phew. Thought I was going mad. I always thought a Merlin was a piston engine, with a supercharger I think, or at least one of its variants.

We have two air shows nearby (one east and one west of me) and I often get WWII aircraft flying past. Have seen at least 4 Spitfires together inc a 2 seater training aircraft with clipped wings. Love the distinctive sound.

I have also watched a Spitfire doing chandelles and stall turns. I can watch 'em for as long as they're there.

My favorite Spitfire video 



And yes snowy some variants of the Merlin were supercherged such as those on the Lancaster bomber.



The sound of four Merlins in unison, a sound I could never tire of 

Quoteto be fair I meant the RR V12 from WW2, I didn't know there was a jet Merlin!!!

There are 2 other merlin engines that I know of besides the rr v12. one is the rocket engine and the other is a jet engine used in rc models. The friend of mine that I said told me about the rr v12 sounding sweet as well, had a rc jet with the merlin jet engine in it.

QuotePhew. Thought I was going mad. I always thought a Merlin was a piston engine, with a supercharger I think, or at least one of its variants.

no your not going mad snowcrash, if your not into rc you probly would not know or heard of it.

Quoteif you have seen a P51-D mustang you've heard the piston Merlin, although built by Packard rather than rolls, in fact the mustang was a failure until married with the Merlin engine :-)

I have seen and heard Mustangs fly by, I however don't know enough about the mustangs to know if they where that model or not. Thanks for the history lesson, Learn something new every day  

In all honesty Sybershot they most likely were the Merlin engined Mustangs, there are few if any A or B models with the Allison engine left 

Heres a pic for you to help with recognition, this is the definitive D model:



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ANy way, this thread was supposed to be about 21st century aicraft not ww2 aircraft no matter how much I love them 

So to kick off the thread back in the right direction:

http://adg.stanford.edu/aa241/intro/futureac.html

That pelican looks pretty neat even if it is just a cargo carrier