Posted on 05/26/2008 9:39:53 AM PDT by BenLurkin
EDWARDS AFB - Flight testing of an unusual aircraft shape that is intended to provide a more efficient means of cargo transport resumed last month at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.
The X-48B is a prototype scale model of a blended wing body aircraft - described as a cross between a conventional aircraft and a flying wing - believed to offer greater fuel efficiency by providing more lift and better aerodynamics.
The aircraft is shaped as an elongated triangle, with a smooth line from the fuselage extending out into the wings.
The program is a joint effort of The Boeing Co.'s Phantom Works and the Air Force, with engineering and flight test support from Dryden.
Made primarily of composite materials, the 8.5%-scale test model is 21 feet wide and weighs approximately 400 pounds. Intended for low-speed, low-altitude research flights, its three small turbojet engines produce a top speed of 138 mph. The vehicle has a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet.
For flight tests, the model is piloted from a control room on the ground.
Low-speed flight testing began last summer, and the second phase of the flight test program, at higher speeds, began April 4.
For the scale model, this means speeds of about 70 to 90 knots (about 80 to 100 mph), the equivalent of 450 to 500 knots (515 to 575 mph) in a full-size aircraft, said Tim Risch, NASA's X-48B project manager.
"We want to fully understand the aerodynamics of the blended wing body design all the way up to and beyond stall, so that we can learn how to fly a blended wing body aircraft as safely as any other large transport aircraft with a conventional tail," said Norm Princen, Boeing's X-48B chief engineer.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
Man, Fedex, UPS and DHL would be ALL OVER this if they started a production run.
Holy flight Batman! It’s a Bat wing!
Making the entire plane an air foil seems quite logical..
Nice!
Very cool!
Nah, it appears to be way too small to be of interest to them.
That’s the 1 in ~12 scale model.
Didn’t the military try a flying wing back in the 40’s or 50’s? I seem to remember building a model of it when I was a kid.
“Didn’t the military try a flying wing back in the 40’s or 50’s? I seem to remember building a model of it when I was a kid.”
Yes, and there’s a new one around these days called the B-2. :-)
The X-47 (unmanned bomber project) is also essentially a blended wing design.
Didn’t the military try a flying wing back in the 40’s or 50’s? I seem to remember building a model of it when I was a kid.
Yes, in 1946 Northrop delivered the XB-35, a flying wing. I seem to remember that it had stability problems.
The 1950s movie “War Of The Worlds” included footage of the flying wing which was carrying and dropped the Atomic Bomb which had no effect on the Martian Machines!
Didn’t the military try a flying wing back in the 40’s or 50’s? I seem to remember building a model of it when I was a kid.
Yes, in 1946 Northrop delivered the XB-35, a flying wing. I seem to remember that it had stability problems.
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Without digging my records out,,,,,,,,, actually I think there was two military versions back then. The 35 was the prop version and the 48 was the 8(?) jet version. There were stability problems that were in the process of being addressed. There was a flyoff between the 48 and the Convair(gotta consult my data) B-49. The 49 won do to the fact that the Douglas Co. was not given the time to fix the stability problems. And the story gets wierderererer after that.
Nobody wonders why there is no B-48 anywhere left on display. I mean being a very unique aircraft one would think at least one plane would have been preserved. It wasn’t because they were scrapped. A certain sorry excuse for a human being ordered every B-48 built destroyed. He never gave an excuse. Maybe I’ll go back and dig out his name. Its right on the tip of my keyboard but I can’t remember. A downright SOB.
B-49, not 48.
And from Wikipedia:
“Specifically, there is a long-standing accusation that Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington attempted to coerce Jack Northrop to merge his company with the Atlas Corporation controlled Convair. When Northrop refused, Symington supposedly arranged to cancel the B-35 and B-49 program.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-35
To save further research, Symington was a Democrat.
The top ohoto from above in post #4 look very similar to the Beech Starship.
B-49, not 48.
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Yeah, I made several mistakes. The jet version was the B-49 and it was built by Northrup, not Douglas. Lastly The B-49 won the flyoff against the B-36. And then Symington stepped in and eventually had every last aircraft destroyed.
Curses! Airfoiled again!
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