FANCY a trip to the Costa del Sol in a stealth bomber? In the next
century, holidaymakers may well be jetting off in similar 鈥渇lying wings鈥� because
the design uses much less fuel than ordinary aircraft, says Ian Poll of the
College of Aeronautics at Cranfield University.
Passengers would sit in a pressurised cabin inside the wing, gazing through
forward-looking windows. There would be no fuselage, and the pilot would sit in
a cockpit at the centre of the wing.
The idea of flying-wing aircraft is not new, but was buried in the 1940s and
early 1950s for political and technical reasons, says Poll. But the success of
the US Air Force鈥檚 stealth bomber has rekindled interest in the design.
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Both Britain and the US tested prototype flying wings, but scrapped the
design in favour of the one that dominates to this day. 鈥淭he only new shape for
civil aircraft since the early 1950s has been Concorde,鈥� says Poll.
As for fuel economy, he says, 鈥渁 flying wing is the optimum configuration by
far鈥�. Calculations show that a flying wing would burn as little as a third, or
even a fifth of the fuel consumed by a conventional plane carrying the same
load.
To realise their potential, flying wings must minimise aerodynamic drag.
Today鈥檚 aircraft produce a turbulent flow of air. Poll says that with a flying
wing it should be easier to achieve 鈥渓aminar鈥� flow, in which the air moves
smoothly past the surfaces.
Britain built and tested a pair of jet-powered flying wings in 1947, called
Armstrong Whitworth AW52s. One aircraft crashed after a pilot ejected during a
test flight. The second prototype was grounded when engineers had trouble
maintaining the large areas of laminar flow that were a central part of the
concept. 鈥淲e now know why, and it鈥檚 possible to correct,鈥� says Poll. 鈥淏ut at the
time, the necessary physics was not known and the manufacturing techniques were
too crude.鈥� Through a mixture of political pressure from backers of rival
designs and gaps in technical knowledge, the project was dropped.
In the US, Northrop tested a series of prototypes in the 1930s and 1940s, and
the US Air Force evaluated a jet-powered version in the late 1940s. But
Boeing and Convair outmanoeuvred Northrop, winning backing for their designs and
ensuring the predominance of the classic Boeing 707 layout.
Now, says Poll, NASA has a $25 million programme to develop the
technology needed to achieve laminar flow. 鈥淛ust because the idea is old, it
doesn鈥檛 mean to say it鈥檚 bad,鈥� says Poll.