Airbus received a patent Tuesday for a new take on an old idea, the trijet aircraft.
In the patent document, filed in 2005, Airbus noted why trijets went out of fashion in the first place: They created a lot of noise for both passengers and airport neighbors. Engine improvements also allowed planes to do a lot more with just two engines.
Airbus new idea is a raised third engine in a channel created by two vertical tails, shielding noise. Having a third engine would allow the other two engines to be smaller and, therefore, quieter.
