The aerospace giant and NASA say the distinctive "blended wing body" design flew like a champ in low-speed tests and holds promise for quieter, more fuel-efficient aircraft yet to come.
It's mission accomplished for the experimental X-48C aircraft.
The distinctively shaped machine this week made the last of 30 flights in an eight-month program as backers Boeing and NASA sought to show how well a "blended wing body" aircraft can perform. The X-48C program is tied to NASA's Environmentally Responsible Aircraft project, which is geared toward developing futuristic airplanes that burn less fuel, spew fewer emissions, and make less noise.
The Boeing-designed X-48C has a radically different look than that of conventional aircraft. Where a big 747 or a little Cessna has -- very roughly speaking -- the shape of a plus sign when viewed from above or below, with a wings sticking out as separate entities from a long, slender fuselage, the X-48C is essentially a seamless triangle in which there is no separation between wings and fuselage. There's no tail structure, either. Hence the term "blended wing."
"We have shown that a BWB aircraft, which offers the tremendous promise of significantly greater fuel efficiency and reduced noise, can be controlled as effectively as a conventional tube-and-wing aircraft during takeoffs, landings and other low-speed segments of the flight regime," Boeing program manager Bob Liebeck said in a statement Friday.
In the 30 flights since last August, the turbojet-powered, remotely piloted X-48C generally flew for about 30 minutes at a time, going as fast as 140 mph and flying as high as 10,000 feet or so, Boeing said. The scale model aircraft, build by Cranfield Aerospace, has a wingspan of a little more than than 20 feet and weighs about 500 pounds.