Posted on 07/04/2010 8:39:52 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
I am researching something on future airlifters and wanted artwork on the stealthy super-STOL tactical transport Boeing windtunnel tested under the US Air Force Research Laboratory's Speed Agile program. I asked Boeing if they had a releasable image. No, they said. I asked AFRL. No, said they. So there I was passing the time browsing the US Patent and Trademark Office website and what do I find but this:
The patent is here and it's Speed Agile, or close to it based on the one image of a 2008 windtunnel model that I do have, from a presentation by the Boeing program manager at an AIAA conference. Speed Agile involved low- and high-speed windtunnel tests of a stealthy airlifter concept that could take off in 1,500ft and cruise at Mach 0.8. Usually STOL aircraft aren't that fast. Boeing's design achieves this "speed agility" using a "propulsive wing" - engines embedded in the wing exhaust throught slots at the trailing edge to provide lift as well as thrust.
(Excerpt) Read more at aviationweek.com ...
This craft is supposed to be a replacement for the C-130.
We will see how fast it is after landing on gravel and dirt like the C-130 does.
Its still on the drawing board. The one thing going for it is the STOL capability.
This is a blended wing body with a fuselage and a slight dihedral V tail for Pitch and Yaw control.
Interesting....
Even more interesting is a Boeing Engr once telling me BWB's weren't all they were cracked up to be.
Hmmm can you say diversion!
Yes, but is great to look at.
A C-130 landed and took off from a carrier in some special tests. Without assist. USS Forestall...
“Altogether, the crew successfully negotiated 29 touch-and-go landings, 21 unarrested full-stop landings, and 21 unassisted takeoffs at gross weights of 85,000 pounds up to 121,000 pounds. At 85,000 pounds, the KC-130F came to a complete stop within 267 feet, about twice the aircraft’s wing span! The Navy was delighted to discover that even with a maximum payload, the plane used only 745 feet for takeoff and 460 feet for landing roll. The short landing roll resulted from close coordination between Flatley and Jerry Daugherty, the carrier’s landing signal officer. Daugherty, later to become a captain and assigned to the Naval Air Systems Command, gave Flatley an engine “chop” while still three or four feet off the deck.”
http://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/c130_forrestal.asp
Are you working with that red headed Russian lady????
It seems to me that well before that would see production, the . . . very exotic . . . craft would be overtly on the scene.
Look at the way the engine exhaust is designed on this model—it uses the same Coanda technology that Boeing developed for the YC-14 back in the 1970’s. That means the plane could have surprising amount of lift from the engine exhaust, which would make it possible for very short takeoffs and landings, possibly under 1,200 feet for a fully-loaded plane.
Nothing more than a B-2 with a conventional aft fuselage and tail. Done.
bflr
Who is that?
If you want to know who wrote the article is Graham Warwick of Aviation Space. Any complaints go to him.
In his dreams, maybe....:)
Perhaps the MC-130 and it’s cousins but this’ll be prohibitively expensive for routine theater airlift.
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