Boeing Airliner Concept – Open-Rotor Canard

After slowly recovering from the oil crisis of the 1970s, the US aerospace industry began exploring novel concepts to insulate itself from future such occurrences, and Boeing dedicated significant resources to the effort. Emerging in the 1980s, this concept proposed utilizing fuel-efficient, open-fan power plants that were being developed at the time for propulsion, along with a unique canard layout in place of a traditional aft horizontal stabilizer.

While such concepts never gained traction in the airline industry, due in part to the complexities involved in jet bridge compatibility, the configuration would see limited success within business aviation, as seen in the Beechcraft Starship and the Piaggio Avanti.