X-48 Aircraft Would Lead to Quieter and Environmentally Cleaner Commercial Aircraft

Could your future airline flight be in an aircraft that looks something like the B-2 Stealth Bomber’s ‘flying wing’ in appearance? If current test flights of NASA’s X-48 aircraft project continue to succeed, it just might.

The agency recently completed an 8 month research flight campaign of a subscale model of the X-48, the remotely piloted X-48C, on April 9th. According to NASA the hybrid-wing-body subscale aircraft, shaped like a manta ray, demonstrates technology concepts for cleaner and quieter commercial air travel. The development goals set forth by NASA were to reduce fuel burn, emissions, and noise.

“We have accomplished our goals of establishing a ground-to-flight database, and proving the low speed controllability of the concept throughout the flight envelope,” said Fay Collier, manager of NASA’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation project. “Very quiet and efficient, the hybrid wing body has shown promise for meeting all of NASA’s environmental goals for future aircraft designs.”

The X-48C was designed by The Boeing Company and built by Cranfield Aerospace Limited of the United Kingdom. The design of the X-48 “features a flattened fuselage with no tail, and engines mounted on top of the fuselage at the rear of the plane. The design stems from concept studies for commercial aircraft that could be flying within 20 years,” says NASA.

“Our team has done what we do best: flight-test a unique aircraft and repeatedly collect data that will be used to design future ‘green’ airliners,” said Heather Maliska, X-48C project manager at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California. “It is bittersweet to see the program come to an end, but we are proud of the safe and extremely successful joint Boeing and NASA flight test program that we have conducted.”

Complete information on this project and other aeronautics research at NASA can be found online at: http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov