A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Business Aviation Services Editor

Curt Epstein

One year after Bombardier unveiled its <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2022-05-22/bombardier-sees-blended-wing-future-business-jets">small-scale EcoJet</a> blended-wing research demonstrator, the Canadian airframer revealed the existence of its bigger brother on Monday&nbsp;at EBACE 2023. Bombardier (Booth K40, Static AD-09) added that the aircraft achieved first flight&nbsp;late last year.
At twice the size of the previous scale model, this new aircraft—with its 18-foot wingspan—represents the conclusion of the first phase of the test program and the start of the second. The company believes this second phase will eventually deliver a lower-carbon emissions aircraft design in pursuit of the industry’s goal&nbsp;to be net-zero emissions by 2050.
“The technology that we have on the EcoJet program is how we at Bombardier are going to get there,” said Stephen McCullough, the Montreal-based company’s senior v-p of engineering and product development. “As we get closer and closer to what the full scale will be, the results have better resolution.”
The project aims to reduce aircraft emissions by up to 50 percent through aerodynamic and propulsion improvements. Among them, the aircraft’s design includes what Bombardier describes as its sixth-generation transonic wing. EcoJet&nbsp;further&nbsp;demonstrates&nbsp;a new aircraft control architecture. “The EcoJet research project has garnered a high level of interest across the industry, and we are looking forward to mobilizing partners as we continue to define the future of business aviation,” said McCullough.
As to whether the next step in the program would be a full-scale aircraft, McCullough noted that as the aircraft design scales up, it will allow for the installation of more representative equipment than smaller versions. But he added a determination has not yet been made. “It’s a technology demonstration platform, and really we will get through the phase of the larger-scale model that we have today, and then we will decide what is the next-step size—if there is a next-step size—to mature the technology,” he told AIN.

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