Boeing works with airlines on commercial blended wing body freighter

Flightglobal.com ^ | 21/05/07 | Graham Warwick

[Freeport]

Boeing is working with two potential customers to define a commercial freighter variant of its blended wing body large transport aircraft as it prepares to fly a subscale model of the flying-wing design at NASA Dryden in California.

“We have been working with a couple of customers,” says George Muellner, president, advanced systems, for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. “We have a customer, we have finalised what they want, and it is now an issue of customer funding and our desire to invest.”

Boeing has been working on the BWB concept for years, but the design is still at an early stage.

“The earliest it could be out there is eight to 10 years, initially as a commercial freighter and beyond that for military applications,” says Muellner.

He says two issues need to be overcome before the BWB becomes a reality. The first is an understanding of the design’s low-speed flying qualities. This will be tackled with the two X-48B unmanned subscale vehicles now at Dryden. Flight testing is expected to begin next month.

[Freeport]

Nice image on the page of the X-48B.

[TChris]

"BCA is scared because it has no windows," says Muellner.

That's a no-brainer. Install a small LCD television next to each row of seats, showing a live feed of video from that side of the plane. Making virtual windows should be child's play.

[Freeport]

Real, real, heavy though...

Quite frankly, except for kids (Some of us who haven’t grown up yet too), how much window viewing is actually done? By looking at the average flight, how many have the window shads drawn anyway?

[Atlas Sneezed]

Install a small LCD television next to each row of seats, showing a live feed of video from that side of the plane. Making virtual windows should be child’s play.

---

Indeed, and it would probably be lighter and safer than actual wondows. And you could select between views, including the view ahead, below, or even radar or infrared.

[Ditto]

Quite frankly, except for kids (Some of us who haven’t grown up yet too), how much window viewing is actually done?

By me, about 90% of the flight. I'm a window-seat kind of guy and I have never gotten over the thrill of looking at the world from a few miles up.

[TChris]

Real, real, heavy though...

Not really. Here's an example of a unit that weighs just 2.1 lbs, in its box, with the remote control, cables and mounting hardware. That's not much of a load to add to an airliner.

A couple hundred pounds all total: problem solved.

[Freeport]

The weight, TFT displays + wiring, would be prohibitive and they would weigh quite a bit more than the plastics used in the windows.

My buddy at Boeing said they looked into that idea several years ago and the weight penalty is 5x - 7x that of windows. It’s still that since the tech hasen’t changed.

[Red Badger]

[SoCal Pubbie]

Jack Northrop figured the problem out fifty years ago:



Northrop's flying-wing airliner.

[Freeport]

That’s a flying wing, not a blended wing / body. Different issues there and he couldn’t figure out how to pressurize the cabin either.

[Robe]

[TChris]

My buddy at Boeing said they looked into that idea several years ago and the weight penalty is 5x - 7x that of windows. It’s still that since the tech hasen’t changed.

True, in comparison to Lexan windows, they would be heavier. But in absolute terms, a few hundred pounds isn't that much of a sacrifice if it means the difference between building it or not building it.

Granted, I don't know what the wiring penalty would be. Maybe that's the real show-stopper.

[sticker]

Cable weight can be reduced considerably if you ran everything CAT5, it also would depend on if everything had to be homerun etc

[Vinnie]

Ditto:
Ditto, I like to try to determine where we are by following rivers, cities, roads, mountain ranges, etc.

Tests my geography.

[Ditto]

Tests my geography.

I do the same.

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

By me, about 90% of the flight. I'm a window-seat kind of guy and I have never gotten over the thrill of looking at the world from a few miles up...

I concur; It allows me to see God's creation and renews my patriotism regarding this great land of ours all at once.

[Tennessee_Bob]

I was a jet engine mechanic - I like to sit behind the wings where I can see the motors.

[Fractal Trader]

Windows aren’t the biggest problems, roll is. Imagine a 100 foot wide body taking a 10 degree roll during a turn. One side would be approximately 10 feet higher than the other.

[doodad]

I am a geologist and like to have the window seat if at all possible. I don’t get that perspective often and am really disappointed by clouds.

[xjcsa]

By me, about 90% of the flight. I'm a window-seat kind of guy and I have never gotten over the thrill of looking at the world from a few miles up.

It's also an experience that demonstrates how ridiculous the global warming scare is. All you have to do is look out the window to see that the world's much too big for us to do anything like that if we wanted to.