A leading U.S. developer of blended-wing body (BWB) aircraft that it bills as a replacement for single-aisle narrowbodies—such as the Boeing 737 Max 8 and 10 and Airbus A321neo—has announced a new, larger flagship concept for up to 250 passengers.
Natilus CEO and co-founder Aleksey Matyushev told FLYING that the company’s Horizon Evo, unveiled Tuesday, is an “evolution” rather than a replacement of its original Horizon design “that we feel is more practical and more market ready.” The Evo, developed with FAA and customer feedback, introduces a dual-deck configuration that Matyushev believes will translate to simpler manufacturing and operations while improving passenger safety and comfort.
Matyushev said the FAA told Natilus that there would be no new rulemaking required for BWB aircraft, so long as they perform like the narrowbodies the company seeks to replace. Changing the original Horizon’s single deck to a dual deck, he said, aligns the Evo with aircraft in service that are “known to be proven correct and certifiable.” Natilus aims to introduce it in the early 2030s.
“By moving into this dual deck layout, it kind of pushes us into a more traditional—I would say known—operational capability that the FAA is more comfortable with,” Matyushev said.
The company on Tuesday also announced fresh funding that Matyushev said will support Evo wind tunnel testing in mid-to-late 2026. The Series A will further fund Kona flight testing, which he predicted will begin in late 2027. Kona assembly will begin in early 2027 as parts begin to arrive at Natilus’ San Diego facility this year, Matyushev added.
Already, the company is searching for the site of its first full-scale manufacturing facility, which Matyushev said could be announced in 2026. He estimated the site will have about 250,000 square feet of manufacturing space for Kona and about 3.5 million square feet for Evo, churning out 60 and 300 to 350 aircraft per year, respectively.
The facility will initially produce only Kona but could serve as a “stepping stone” as Natilus ramps up to Evo production.
“Then we can really run with the Horizon and really scale it,” Matyushev said.
Changing Course
Matyushev said Natilus considered “many different iterations”—including single- and dual-deck configurations—when developing Horizon. The company opted for the single-deck due to its relative simplicity and previous BWB research conducted by NASA and Boeing in the 1990s and 2000s.
“We felt like, ‘Oh, my gosh, they figured it all out,’” Matyushev said. “And so, why not just start with that approach?”
NASA and Boeing studied 800- and 450-passenger BWB concepts, conducting more than 120 flight tests with two 8.5 percent dynamically scaled test vehicles built around the latter. But Matyushev felt that capacity—around the Airbus “A380 level of airplanes”—was too large for a BWB.
“I think the A380 just left a lot of, I would say, fear within the airlines that they just don’t want to go through again,” he said.
Settling on a smaller aircraft, Natilus forged ahead with its single-deck concept, studying the dual deck in parallel. But it “became very clear about six to eight months ago that the dual deck is going to be the clear winner.”
“As we started to get more into the weeds and operational efficiency of the airplane, we just thought that there’s a better way to do it,” Matyushev said.
Natilus Goes Bigger
The Natilus CEO said the first Horizon iteration “started to fall apart a lot faster than what we originally thought” after engineers considered ground operations such as handling, loading, and unloading. Evo, he said, is optimized for the C4-class gates that accommodate the 737 Max 8 and 10 and A321neo, which are about 118 feet wide.
“A single-deck just did not look right in those parking spaces,” Matyushev said.
Another concern was egress. The single-deck design, he said, had a wider cabin, making it difficult for passengers to access its eight exits. Exits at the rear of the plane would often be blocked by cargo containers.
“You’re putting passengers in the middle and then the cargo containers in the armpits of the airplane,” Matyushev said.
Evo moves cargo to the lower deck, allowing Natilus to add overhead bin space and windows “almost across the entirety of the airframe,” without reducing the number of exits. The original Horizon had windows only for five rows of first-class seats. Matyushev said the lower deck also adds significantly more volume, making it more stable than a tube-and-wing for water egress.
The Natilus boss said airlines rarely optimize the cargo space of narrowbodies, with many using it to store loose luggage rather than air freight. But Evo’s lower deck will be 18 feet wide, with room for 12 standard LD3-45 containers. Its projected volumetric capacity (about 2,600 cubic feet) would exceed the Boeing 757 freighter’s—which Matyushev said is “toward the tail end of its life”—despite a smaller form factor. He said the company could even produce a “freighter-only” Evo variant.
Among Natilus customers, the main concern was that Evo matched Horizon’s promised operational savings—30 percent lower fuel burn than tube-and-wing models. Despite the design changes, Matyushev said that is still the target. Evo’s commercial off-the-shelf Pratt & Whitney 1500F Geared Turbofan (GTF) or CFM International LEAP engines could run on jet-A or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
“I feel we’re better operationally, and we’re at exactly the same specifications for our performance that we were traditionally,” he said.
In fact, Matyushev said Natilus has pitched customers on a longer range than the original Horizon’s 3,500 nm. He is optimistic that Evo could get closer to that of an Airbus A321XLR.
“That product has been finding a lot of traction with the low-cost airlines because it gives them the same capabilities as a widebody…in a smaller form factor that they know how to fly and maintain,” he said.
Evo also offers more seating flexibility, with configurations for 150, 200, or 250 passengers. It has a projected cruise speed of Mach 0.78 and cruise altitude of 35,000 feet, not far off from what Matyushev predicted in January. Natilus has not announced a payload, though Mayushev in January estimated Horizon’s maximum takeoff weight at about 160,000 pounds.
Flight Plan
Natilus’ Series A will primarily support the company’s test and certification efforts for Evo and Kona, which it says will become available in 2029. It could also aid the search for a full-scale manufacturing facility, which Matyushev said will likely be in the U.S. to handle early demand.
As the company scales up to Evo, it could build a “second iteration” of the factory elsewhere. Matyushev said Europe and India are its largest non-U.S. markets. It plans to colocate Kona and Evo manufacturing capabilities at airports. That could open up “cross pollination between talents as well as manufacturing capability between the two factories,” allowing Natlus to shift assets used to produce Kona over to Evo as demand changes.
In the near term, Matyushev said commercial will always be the company’s largest market, but defense opportunities could also be sizable. Congested logistics in the Indo-Pacific region, he said, will open opportunities for autonomous Kona variants to replace the military’s Lockheed C-130s.
The company has “quite a bit of letter support already” from military offices. And there could be defense applications for Evo as well, such as airlift and aerial refueling.
“If there’s a better way to do a C-130 and make it attritable, make it autonomous, I think that’s where you start to get the ear of the United States Air Force,” Matyushev said.
The Natilus CEO said getting Evo in the wind tunnel will be a key priority in 2026. He added that the company hopes to announce “something very big” in the next few months.
Natilus is not alone in the commercial BWB race. Another BWB design, JetZero’s 250-passenger Z4, promises fuel burn reductions as high as 50 percent. JetZero recently raised $175 million in a funding round that included RTX Ventures, Northrop Grumman, and United Airlines, which could order up to 100 Z4s under a preliminary agreement.
