Blended Wing Body
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Blended Wing Body, or BWB, designates an alternative airframe design which incorporates design features from both a traditional tube and wing design into a hybrid flying wing configuration. The advantages of the BWB approach are efficient high-lift wings and a wide airfoil-shaped body. This enables the entire craft to contribute to lift generation with the result of potentially increased fuel economy.
Flying wing designs are defined as having no separate body, only a single wing, though there may be structures protruding from the wing. Blended wing/body aircraft have a flattened and airfoil shaped body, which produces most of the lift to keep itself aloft, and distinct and separate wing structures, though the wings are smoothly blended in with the body.
An early aircraft exhibiting BWB design principles was the Junkers G.38, which flew in 1929. This "super jumbo" airliner of its day, seated thirty-four passengers, six in each of it's two meter thick wings, and the balance in the central fuselage. In comparison, a contemporary passenger aircraft, the Ford Trimotor, carried a total of nine passengers in it's more traditional wing and tube fuselage design.
In some ways, the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is a design which falls between classic flying wing concepts and the BWB concept. It is usually classified as a flying wing, however, as the protruding body sections are not much larger than the underlying wing shape structure.
Currently, both NASA and Boeing are exploring BWB designs under the designation X-48. Studies suggest that BWB aircraft, configured for passenger flight, could carry from 450 to 800 passengers and achieve fuel savings of over 20 percent. NASA has been developing, since 2000, a remotely controlled model with a 35 foot (11 m) wingspan. This research is focused on establishing the base data concerning the lift, stall and spin characteristics inherent in a Blended Wing Body design.
Potential advantages
- Improved fuel economy
- Reduced noise impact (if the engines are placed above the wings)
Challenges
Problems that need to be overcome are:- difficulty in control, owing to the lack of a tail
- greater strength needed to maintain internal pressure, compared to tube-shaped body
See also
External links
- [‘Blended wing’ craft passes wind-tunnel tests] NewScientist.com news service, 14 November 2005
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