Boeing X-48B Blended Wing Body demonstrator
When I first blogged about the X-48 a year and a half ago – the radio controlled scale model had just taken its first flight.
This program hasn’t died yet – but its focus has changed. In a AvWeek article published on-line earlier this week – NASA now believes that the Hybrid Wing Body (HWB, its generic term for BWB shapes) is key to reaching its agressive environment targets (for both fuel economy and radiated noise).
Boeing’s Phantom Works has supposedly even talked to two large shipping companies (believed to be FedEx and UPS) about the BWB, causing internal problems with Boeing Commercial Airplanes (who normally handles cargo aircraft).
The US Air Force is still in the mix – looking for tanker/cargo aircraft with the best fuel efficiencies possible, which leads to……
NASA’s lead investigator said they are looking to partner w/ the Air Force Research Lab on a large scale structural demonstrator in the next couple of years. That would then lead to a manned flight demonstrator approximately the size of a 737.
