A group from NASA and Boeing finished the first stage of flight testing of its merged wing body design that could symbolize the airliner of the future. The airplane is based on a design where the fuselage provides a significant part of the lift.
Such designs, as shown in the above picture, could take more than hundreds of airline passengers in the large center division whereas burning much less fuel than current airliners of like capacity. Fine, except that the airplane imaged above is only about one foot tall.
The trial aircraft is only 8.5 percent scale model with a 21 foot wingspan, excluding engineers at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center were capable to show the tailless aircraft can be safely take off, and more prominently safely landed in a variety of conditions.
The X-48B program is partition of NASA’s new Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project intended at developing more fuel efficient and quieter aircraft for the future. ERA Project manager Fay Collier says that the conclusion of the final test flight last month confirmed the feasibility of a combined wing body design, “the team has demonstrated the ability to fly tailless aircraft to the border of the low-speed covering safely.”
With an X-48B test pilot reverse in October, and learned that regardless of its size, the merged wing body aircraft offers the same confront as any aircraft in flight testing. One of the big challenges the X-48B group has been working on during the past some months is the aircraft’s handling uniqueness at the lower speeds, particularly during the landing.
NASA engineers arrange the X-48B for a test flight . In the concluding test flights, the pilots were able to purposely go beyond the normal limits of the aircraft in terms of variables such as approach of attack and side slip angle. During the tests, the aboard computer was able to safely control the aircraft permist the pilot to return to normal flight conditions.
Subsequent to a new flight computer is fixed later this year, the X-48B will continue a new phase of flights tests. The group is also preparing for a second hybrid wing body aircraft, the X-48C for future flight tests. The -C model is intended to have a lower noise profile to keep people in the region of airports as happy as the airline bean counters paying the fuel bills.
Such designs, as shown in the above picture, could take more than hundreds of airline passengers in the large center division whereas burning much less fuel than current airliners of like capacity. Fine, except that the airplane imaged above is only about one foot tall.
The trial aircraft is only 8.5 percent scale model with a 21 foot wingspan, excluding engineers at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center were capable to show the tailless aircraft can be safely take off, and more prominently safely landed in a variety of conditions.
The X-48B program is partition of NASA’s new Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project intended at developing more fuel efficient and quieter aircraft for the future. ERA Project manager Fay Collier says that the conclusion of the final test flight last month confirmed the feasibility of a combined wing body design, “the team has demonstrated the ability to fly tailless aircraft to the border of the low-speed covering safely.”
With an X-48B test pilot reverse in October, and learned that regardless of its size, the merged wing body aircraft offers the same confront as any aircraft in flight testing. One of the big challenges the X-48B group has been working on during the past some months is the aircraft’s handling uniqueness at the lower speeds, particularly during the landing.
NASA engineers arrange the X-48B for a test flight . In the concluding test flights, the pilots were able to purposely go beyond the normal limits of the aircraft in terms of variables such as approach of attack and side slip angle. During the tests, the aboard computer was able to safely control the aircraft permist the pilot to return to normal flight conditions.
Subsequent to a new flight computer is fixed later this year, the X-48B will continue a new phase of flights tests. The group is also preparing for a second hybrid wing body aircraft, the X-48C for future flight tests. The -C model is intended to have a lower noise profile to keep people in the region of airports as happy as the airline bean counters paying the fuel bills.
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