Patent ID: 7900865

Claim:
An aircraft comprising: a tubular fuselage having a longitudinal axis; two wings mounted to the tubular fuselage, each in a substantially forward swept wing configuration and including a leading edge, a trailing edge, and an upper surface; a plurality of shrouded turbofan engines with a nacelle mounted to the aircraft, the engines and nacelles completely above the wings and each including a leading end, a trailing end, a top, and a bottom, and each engine having a central longitudinal axis that is directly above a wing; and vertical stabilizers mounted on each wing outboard of an outermost engine at vertical stabilizer mounting locations; and an aft deck including a trailing edge and an upwardly rotatable pitch control surface at the trailing edge of the aft deck, wherein the mounting locations of the vertical stabilizers to the wings are lower than the bottom of each nacelle and each vertical stabilizer extends at least as high as the top of each nacelle, wherein the leading edge of each wing extends forward of the leading end of each nacelle at a location along the central longitudinal axis of each engine associated with each nacelle, wherein the trailing edge of the aft deck extends aft of the trailing end of each nacelle along the central longitudinal axis of each engine at least a distance as great as the distance from the upper surface of each wing to the top of each nacelle, wherein the upwardly rotatable pitch control surface extends on each side of the fuselage approximately from the fuselage to each vertical stabilizer, wherein forward, underneath, lateral, and aft shielding of engine noise and infrared radiation are provided, and wherein the configuration of the fuselage, the two wings, the plurality of shrouded turbofan engines, the vertical stabilizers, and the aft deck is suitable for a commercial airliner.