Blended Wing Body

Kuldeep Kumar (13/605)

University Teaching Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kota (Raj.)
Kamboj.kuldeep3@gmail.com

Abstract
Blended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft have a flattened and airfoil shaped body,
which produces most of the lift, the wings contributing the balance. The body
form is composed of distinct and separate wing structures, though the wings
are smoothly blended into the body. Flying wing designs are defined as a
tailless fixed wing aircraft which has no definite fuselage, with most of the
crew, payload and equipment being housed inside the main wing structure.
Blended wing body has lift to drag ratio 50% greater than
conventional airplane. The purported 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 and range.
A flying wing is a type of tailless aircraft design, since a wing is
necessary of any aircraft, removing everything else, like the tail and
fuselages, results in a design with the lowest possible drag. In 1988, when
NASA Langley Research Centres Dennis Bushnell asked the question: Is
there a renaissance for the long haul transport? there was cause for
reaction. In response, a brief preliminary design study was conducted at
McDonnell Douglas to create and evaluate alternate configurations.
Here, the pressurized passenger compartment consisted of adjacent
parallel tubes, a lateral extension of the double bubble concept. Comparison
with a conventional configuration airplane sized for the same design mission
indicated that the blended configuration was significantly lighter, had a
higher lift to drag ratio, and had a substantially lower fuel burn.
Latest being the NASA and Boeing successfully completed initial
flight testing of Boeing X48B on March 19, 2010. The Blended Wing Body
(BWB) is the relatively new aircraft concept that has potential use as a
commercial or military use aircraft, cargo delivery or as fuel tanker.

References

[1] R. H. Liebeck Design of Blended Wing Body Subsonic Transport

[2] X-48B Blended Wing Body

(https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/research/X-48B/index.html )

[3] Blended Wing Body Aircraft

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN3C7K7c9nw&index=21&t=1694s&list=WL)