I know our blog isn't called TechnoFly, but I thought this was cool nonetheless: Boeing and NASA have stepped up testing of their X-48B blended wing body research aircraft, Autopia reports, which is about 30 percent more fuel efficient than similarly-sized planes.

"We want to fully understand the aerodynamics of the blended wing body design all the way up to and beyond stall, so that we can learn how to fly a blended wing body aircraft as safely as any other large transport aircraft with a conventional tail," say Norm Princen, the X-48B chief engineer, in the report.

The point of the exercise is to test a blended wing body design, which uses a triangular-shaped wing fused to the fuselage, rather than the tube-wing-tail design of traditional aircraft, according to the article. Special slats, which deploy on each wings' leading edge, let the aircraft take off, fly, and land at lower speeds than usual.