Boeing Company,
Edwards, CA: NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and The Boeing Co. are expanding the flight envelope for the X-48B blended wing body research aircraft.
Flight tests with the 500-pound, remotely piloted test vehicle are now in a second phase involving higher speed regimes.
The 21-foot wing span test aircraft is flying without its slats deployed. Slats are flight control surfaces on the leading edges of wings which, when extended, allow an aircraft to take off, fly and land at slower speeds.
X-48B flight testing is taking place at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. NASA Dryden is providing critical support to a Boeing-led project team that also includes the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, and Cranfield Aerospace Ltd., of Bedford, England.
“The first flight in the slats-retracted configuration marked another milestone in aviation history and the performance of the X-48 aircraft continues to exceed our expectations,” said Tim Risch, NASA X-48B project manager.
“This flight milestone reinforced the productive relationship of the NASA, Boeing and Air Force team and NASA's continued commitment to developing the concepts, tools and technologies for the aircraft of the future.”
“We want to fully understand the aerodynamics of the blended wing body design all the way up to and beyond stall, so that we can learn how to fly a blended wing body aircraft as safely as any other large transport aircraft with a conventional tail,” said Norm Princen, Boeing's X-48B chief engineer.
“This latest phase of the flight testing is one more step in the process and we are looking forward to progressing on to more risky flight maneuvers in the months ahead.”
