While the innovation has yet to bewitch on with civilian atmosphere traveler ( focus grouping detest amphitheatre - style seating ) , Blended Wing Body aircraft defy great promise for military operations . To better analyze this innovative design without sink untold extra millions into R&D , NASA built the next best matter — a 1:8.5 scale RC demonstrator .
The X-48B is n’t a running of the mill RC plane , mind you . Designed by Boeing Phantom Works in conjunction with the Air Force Research Laboratory , the X-48 has a 20 - groundwork wingspread that accurately mimics the morphologic , aerodynamic and operating feature of the Blended Wing Body concept . A trio of JetCat P200 turbofan engines impel the 500 - pound model up to 136 miles per hour with a 10,000 invertebrate foot usable ceiling and a 40 minute of arc flight of steps duration .
The Blended Wind Body design — clearly unpopular with commercial carrier — does have several advantages over schematic aircraft , specially as a multi - role , long - range , high-pitched - mental ability military transport . Flattening the body of the aircraft to act as part of the extension generates less retarding force , which translate into a longer operational cooking stove , better fuel economy , less noise , a prominent warhead electrical capacity , and lower manufacturing and maintenance costs .
The X-48 Concept was first concocted in the tardy 1990 ’s by engineers at McDonnell Douglas . After McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing , the house worked with the NASA Langley Research Center to create a precursor to the X-48 program , a 17 - foot wide of the mark propellor - driven poke that vanish briefly in 1997 . However , by the time the X-48A , a 35 - groundwork BWB modelling got off the ground in 2004 , Boeing had effectively cancelled the project .
Typically , when R&D projects like this are cancelled , they stay strike down . However , by 2007 , Boeing was back hard at work on the X-48B — a smaller , more full-bodied iteration of the series design . Two such 48Bs were build in the UK by Cranfield Aerospace . They first flew in July of that year at the NASA Dryden testing quickness , touch 7,500 feet during the 30 arcminute flying . “ Earlier wind - burrow testing and the upcoming flight of steps examination are focused on learning more about the BWB ’s low - speed flight - ascendancy characteristics , specially during mockery and landing , ” Norman Princen , Boeing ’s main engine driver for the projection , said . “ know how accurately our models call these characteristics is an crucial dance step in the further exploitation of this concept . ” 92 test flights and nearly two years later , Boeing and NASA conclude the X-48B ’s initial examination in March of 2010 .
Since then , Boeing has been working to further upgrade the X-48 ’s capabilities . Though built from an X-48B chassis , the unexampled X-48C is even more restrained than its harbinger thanks to a Hybrid Wing Body ( HWB ) aircraft design . Other changes include relocate the tip-tilted winglets , from out the wingtips in toward the engines , to increase stability . Also , Boeing replaced the triad of of 500 pounding - knife thrust engines with a twosome of smaller 89 Egyptian pound - thrusters . The model C made its successful maiden voyage this preceding Tuesday above Edwards Air Force Base in California ’s Mojave Desert . [ Defense Systems – Wikipedia – NASA – Boeing ]
NASA
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , scientific discipline , and culture news in your inbox day by day .
News from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
