Airbus, having gotten impatient with battery technology, is looking at hydrogen-powered aircraft in its hypotheticals. This has the potential to make runway slideoffs into spectacular events in a way that plain ol' Jet A just can't. (Kerosene's an awful accelerant, as any kid who went through a firebug phase while their friend's parents were going through a diesel Benz phase can tell you. Allegedly.)
Still, that blended wing concept still looks all cool and futuristic.
Speaking of cool and futuristic, check out this pusher turboprop, which...if the builder's vision pans out...could revolutionize commuter hops. The problem with airports on the tiny end of the scale is that it's so uneconomical to service them with conventional aircraft that the government subsidizes airlines to service them*, else they'd have no regularly scheduled air transport at all. Reducing the operating costs of the planes on these sorts of hops would be a boon.
*Yes, in libertopia the government would dry up and blow away and we'd have sky pilots buying Cessna 402's and freelancing passengers around between Enid, OK and Pierre, SD in exchange for silver coins, but until that day arrives, apparently we've deemed it important enough to have at least rudimentary provisions for scheduled air travel to and from some of the more isolated corners of the country to kick in from the public coffers. Like most public services, it's popular with the people who directly benefit from it and viewed as profligate from those who don't, and no doubt has its share of graft and corruption.
