Boeing developing 'radical' 800-seat superjumbo

Boeing engineers are working on an 800-seat airliner with wings that blend smoothly into the fuselage instead of protruding from its sides.

The so-called blended wing-body aircraft would fly at the same speed and altitude as a Boeing 747-400 but would use 25% less fuel and generate less noise, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Unlike other airline jets, the proposed Boeing jet would not have a traditional fuselage or tail with fins.

Passengers would be seated in two decks and, since most would not be seated near a window, the backs of each seat would have a video monitor providing a view of the outside.

"It looks different, but it isn't that much different from the B-2 stealth bomber, and we know that works," said Robert Liebeck, a Boeing programme manager working on the new craft.

Liebeck said the new plane should be completed within a decade but the programme could be accelerated if Boeing gives priority to competing with the A-380, a double-decker airliner under development by European consortium Airbus Industrie.

The A-380, which will seat about 600, is expected to be in the air by 2006.