If you're about to go deaf from living near an airport, there's hope. Researchers at Cambridge and MIT are unveiling a "silent jet" that uses military stealth technologies to muffle noisy planes.
Rather than the standard tube-and-wing design of commercial airliners today, the jet is a "flying wing" like the stealth bombers developed in secret a couple of decades ago. If it works, researchers say the plane will make about as much noise as a washing machine. But don't start buying up cheap property along flight paths anytime soon--the earliest these jets are expected to fly is 2030.
(Photos: Silent Aircraft Initiative)