Future of Flight: The Blended Wing -- Condé Nast Traveler

NASA's test flights of the X-48B, an experimental "blended wing" aircraft, indicate that flying is about to take a radical turn. Clive Irving of Condé Nast Traveler reports

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• flying
• blended
• wing
• NASA
• aviation
• space
• passenger
• jets
• boeing
• airbus
• conde
• nast
• traveler

[lespoir]

only miniture models by NASA/Boeing. If any business driver is shaping up, the earliest year to see a real one is 2030.

[Veldtian1]

The military transport BWB concept aka the 'Superfrog' is a Lockheed concept I think..

[ProPHet2608]

@fhhuber :

It's also about where the engine is attached to an how much thrust it has to provide. Considering lesser drag and improved lift of this design, it's likely to be less noisy.

[reptilionsarehere]

all i want to know is how much weight it can fly with and how fast will it travel

[fhhuber]

The airplane style has little effect on noise... the engine is where you get the noise from an airliner.

For a propeller driven plane sometimes the prop makes more noise than the engine.

[Archimedes555453525]

Are they building this plane allready?

[theinsane101]

blended wing aircraft are very quiet. 62 decimals at airport limit.