The Innovative X-48 May Be the Aircraft Design That Leads Us Into the Air travel of the Future

NASA’s Fundamental Aeronautics Program and the Air Force Research Laboratory have teamed with Boeing Co. and its Green flying lab in the creation of an Eco-friendly Hybrid Wing Drone, dubbed the X-48B; of which soared magnificently during its 80th and last test flight on March 19th, 2010. In Time Magazines November 12th edition; a story was written on the best and most innovative inventions of 2007. Under the category for aircrafts; the energy efficient X-48B was recognized for its Eco-friendly and advanced innovations that have the potential to provide a cleaner, quieter and high performance air transportation alternative to traditional aircraft models.
The Eco-friendly project has been in its first phase of development for about 3 years now and has been granted access to move onto the next stages of its development. The underlining goal of the Eco-friendly X-48B project is to find practical applications of producing cleaner, quitter and more energy efficient aircrafts.

The X-48B weighs approximately 500 pounds and is designed to be an unmanned automated aircraft. The body design of the Hybrid Wing Drone is called the “blended wing body” (BWB). Two prototypes have been tested; each with a 21 ft wingspan; which is 8.5 percent to scale. The Green X-48B prototypes both are powered by three turbojet engines and can reach maximum speeds of up to 138mph at an altitude of about 10,000 ft.
Other aspects of the X-48B that make it an appealing possible aircraft of the future to NASA is its ability to travel long distances, be multi functional and its possible military applications. The aircraft is designed with a unique mixture of an advanced wing style with a wide airfoil-shaped body. These in combination have shown promising energy efficient results during the initial testing stages.

During the first three years of NASA testing, in the phase one stage; NASA conducted many experiments on how the innovatively designed body reacted to the remote controlled maneuvering commands. Some specific tests that were conducted were related to the X-48B’s ability to handle such tasks/issues like angles of attack, sideslip angel, stalling threshold and acceleration capabilities. All of these tests were done again and again; and were correlated to the X-48B’s onboard computers ability to handle the commands and keep the Green energy efficient aircraft stable and steady.
Fay Collier, the manager of NASA’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project, said this in regards to the X-48B and its initial testing phase:
“This project is a huge success,” Fay Collier went on to say; “Bottom line: the team has proven the ability to fly tailless aircraft to the edge of the low-speed envelope safely,”

Another Green Hybrid Wing Drone is also in the works; dubbed the X-48C; of which is said to offer an even lower noise profile and possibly additional energy efficiency. The Eco-friendly X-48C is currently awaiting the testing phase. Plans are already in the works for a newer more sophisticated flight computer to be installed in the X-48B with testing beginning later this year. There is a reported 25 test flights already scheduled in an effort to record more data about the low speed flight regime.