X-48B scale model to fly next year

Source URL: http://www.flightinternational.com/Articles/2005/11/22/203103/X-48B+scale+model+to+fly+next+year.html
Posted at: http://www.air-attack/com/news/news_article/809

Boeing and NASA will flight test the X-48B, a 6.4m (21ft)-span, 8.5% scale model of a blended wing body (BWB) configuration, next year at the US space agency’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California.

The remote-controlled vehicle will be powered by three turbojets and will test flight-control laws. Boeing is developing the BWB in co-operation with the US Air Force Research Laboratory as a multi-role military aircraft.

The flight testing will follow statically mounted windtunnel tests of a second 8.5% model in NASA Langley Research Center’s full-scale tunnel next February, focusing on aerodynamic forces and moments. “Cranfield Aerospace in the UK is building the two vehicles. They should be finished in the next month or so,” says Langley’s flight dynamics principal investigator, Dan Vicroy.

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