Boeing had in the past studied a blended wing body design, but found that passengers did not like the theater-like configuration of the mock-up; the design was dropped for passenger airliners, but retained for military aircraft such as aerial refueling tankers From Wikipedia
General characteristics
- Crew: None
- Wingspan: 20 ft 5 in (6.22 m)
- Wing area: 100.5 sq ft (9.34 m2)
- Aspect ratio: 4.1
- Gross weight: 500 lb (227 kg)
- Powerplant: 3 × JetCat P200 turbojet, 52 lbf (0.23 kN) thrust each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 136 mph; 219 km/h (118 kn)
- Endurance: 40 minutes
- Service ceiling: 10,000 ft (3,048 m)
The blended wing body (BWB) concept offers advantages in structural, aerodynamic and operating efficiencies over today's more conventional fuselage-and-wing designs. These features translate into greater range, fuel economy, reliability and life cycle savings, as well as lower manufacturing costs. They also allow for a wide variety of potential military and commercial applications.
The X-48 aircraft is an investigational unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aimed at studying the characteristics of the blended wing body (BWB) for aircraft. I read here that "The BWB concept for X-48 aircraft was developed by Boeing Phantom Works with the Nasa Langley Research Centre."
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