See Airbus’s radical new plane concept, a luxe riff on the Stealth Bomber

It looks like a giant kite. Or perhaps a Playskool toy rendition of the vicious B-2 Stealth Bomber. But Maveric, a new concept developed by Airbus, promises a posh experience for commuters in the sky, all while consuming 20% less fuel than traditional airplanes. The catch? As of today, it’s only been built out to be the size of a small radio-controlled plane. The proof of concept first took flight last year.

Even still, Maveric is an exciting approach to flying. It utilizes a blended-wing approach, which essentially turns the entire plane body into one giant wing, allowing it to more easily generate lift while still slicing through the sky at super-fast speeds. Blended-wing aircraft have actually flown successfully since the 1940s, though the most famous implementation for the design was the aforementioned B-2 bomber. Where we haven’t seen the design creep up yet is in commercial aircraft, and frankly, that’s where it might make the most sense.

Aside from fuel savings, a blended-wing aircraft allows both people and cargo to fit inside a much larger footprint, filling the V-shaped structure instead of a skinny tube. While there are few available specs about the Maveric (and Airbus did not respond to our request for interview), we can make a lot of guesses by looking at another blended-wing commercial aircraft concept, proposed by NASA and Boeing. Their craft would have a wingspan wider than a 747, but weigh less, generate less noise, seat more people, and still squeeze into existing airport terminals. It’s safe to assume that the Maveric would be similar.

What Airbus did share, however, were luxe images of the Maveric’s inner cabin. It doesn’t look so much like the skinny-rowed commuter planes we know so much as a conference room in the sky. The footprint appears even wider than the Airbus 380, the world’s largest passenger plane that ceased production last year, though it’s worth noting that the 380 had seats stacked two stories tall. Sure, people would probably be sardined into the Maveric as they are any other plane these days, but it’s nice to imagine the spaciousness, if only for one impractical moment.