Is the Future of flight taking shape today?

With only a little bit of fanfare - the one possible future of (manned) flight - took to the air last week in the California desert. The X-48B - Blended Wing Body (BWB) took to the air from Edwards Air Force base for a 30 minute test flight.

This 8.5% scale model - based on a design from Boeing's Phantom Works. The wing is blended into the fuselage - so it has some aspects of a flying wing - but without the sacrificing payload/range for stealth.

[And - no - they didn't train mice to fly the scale test model. It was fully radio controlled from the ground. Yes - they do make jet engines that small - I have seen them on amateur radio control planes. I have to dig up the pictures from a trip the Tucson R/C Jet Rally from Feb 2004. But trust me - its a jet. All you have to do is remember the Predator/Reapers that are flown over Irag and AFG - are being controlled from CONUS - and flying something like this from the side of the runway - is child's play.]

Boeing has been looking at this design for several years. At first as a high volume passenger jet - which met a luke warm/cold reception (due to the need for airports to reconfigure to handle the different shape - as well as the fact that only a small percentage of the passenger's would have windows).

But the design attracted interest from the US DOD - whose requirements for windows - doesn't rank very high up in the design criteria. Think about it. I could see 3 different uses for this airframe;

- tanker - jet fuel doesn't care if can see out a window or not
- cargo - ditto about cargo/troops
- stand-off weapons carrier - maybe 4-6 internal rotary launchers

Just like a flying wing - the whole body is part of the airfoil. Providing what I would guess is great lift - and combine that with 3 modern turbo fans (like on the new Dreamliner) - this thing probably gets great fuel economy. Leading to either a seriously long range - or a long loiter capacity.

(I will have to admit - that this thing must be day glow on a look down radar)

It will probably start life as either the tanker or the cargo plane - but don't be surprised if the Air Force requirement for a Long Range Strike aircraft takes a serious look at the X-48B.

For more information - take a look at the following stories;
- Boeing's press release (pictures)
- AP Story posted to CNN/Money
- Wired News (pictures)
- Murdoc Online (pictures)

[UPDATE - September 16th - It looks like other people are thinking the same thing about the BWB being something that the DOD is interested in. Over on Defense Tech - http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003724.html]

[UPDATE - December 12th - here is a link to some more pictures of both the flying prototype and the model in the wind tunnel. Over at CNET - http://www.news.com/2300-11397_3-6207999-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg]

[UPDATE - December 20th - here is a link to a brief article in Popular Science - to see what a MIT/Cambridge designed BWB Passenger aircraft would look like - from Feb 2007 - http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviationspace/6d915d1eb5370110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html]