Here's some pictures of
Boeing's new X-48B flight demo aircraft.







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Good day friends,
You may remember a year or two ago we shared a
"photo" of what looked a little like a B2 bomber in United
livery. It was described as a Boeing project and, as usual for all things
engineering and Boeing related, we asked Gordon McKinzie whether it was
fact or fantasy. As you may also recall, Gordon advised the project was
real and had to do with new a blended wing design.
The airplane concept is not new: It first surfaced
at McDonnell-Douglas in the early '90s and then migrated up to Boeing
when the two companies merged in 1997. I was around Boeing at the time
and remember them poo-pooing the concept big time, for several reasons (
most importantly, they were looking at the Sonic Cruiser and other
preliminary designs at the time, and had no time for the Douglas NIH
"intrusion"). First negative was the bad stability of the
airplane (except with computers -- no natural stability), second was the
lack of windows for the passengers (none), and third was the difficult
evacuation scenario in case of a crash landing. The lone, persevering,
and dogged promoter of the concept, Bob Liebeck, and I became good friends
when he sought airline technical input. I think I was his staunchest
supporter, and only recently I was honored to be a nominee for Bob to
elect him Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Boeing is a long way from a full scale
proof-of-concept airplane, but I'm happy to report that the stability
issue is now resolved. Still working on the windowless and evacuation
problem, and for that reason the first "real" BWB will most likely
be a cargo or tanker aircraft for the military.
Because almost all of the fuselage is a lifting
surface, the BWB is more than 10 percent lighter than a conventional
"wing and tube" airplane with the same payload. The fuel
efficiency is pegged at a genuine 30% savings below even the most
efficient large aircraft flying today. And yes, Airbus is already looking
into a concept very much like the BWB, only their engines are in the
leading edge and they have a semblance of a tail structure. I understand
they have already launched some wind tunnel tests of their design.
One interesting attribute of the Boeing BWB pax
airplane design is the fact that the guy sitting on the furthest outboard
seat will experience higher "g's" in a turn than the other pax seated
more inboard. We'll save those seats for those yank-and-bank fighter
pilots.
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/improvingflight/x48b.html
So that's what may be on the horizon. Probably no
meal service though. :)
Have a nice afternoon and evening.