Used By NASA For Wind Tunnel Testing
A flying model NASA built to research futuristic aircraft
designs will spend its future in the United States' premier air and
space museum.
The 12-foot wing span blended wing body, or BWB, model, used
during wind tunnel flight tests at NASA's Langley Research Center
in Hampton, VA is on long-term loan to the "How Things Fly" gallery
at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in
Washington.
"One key focus of NASA aeronautics research is to develop
technologies to make aircraft more fuel efficient and
environmentally friendly," said Jaiwon Shin, associate
administrator for NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate
in Washington. "Because of these technologies, airplanes may look
very different 20 years from now. This model will give visitors to
the Smithsonian a glimpse into the future of air travel."
The model was tested in a wind tunnel to help engineers better
understand how the blended wing body handles. The five-percent
scale model has 18 control surfaces along the trailing edges of the
wing, compared to four on most airplanes. Those four are the
rudder, the ailerons, the elevator and the flap. One of the
challenges to controlling a flying wing is determining how to blend
the control surfaces to make the vehicle turn and climb.
The blended wing body resembles a flying wing, unlike today's
"tube-and-wing" aircraft. "When you get rid of the tail you have to
come up with different ways to control the plane," said Dan Vicroy,
a senior research engineer at Langley. "We have a lot of experience
with conventional airplanes. We know how to predict how they are
going to fly. But with this type of a flying wing design, we have
fewer examples and less confidence in our flying quality
estimates."
Vicroy led the "free flight" experiment in the Langley Full
Scale Tunnel's huge 30-by-60-foot test section. "We actually flew
this BWB in the tunnel in 2005," said Vicroy. "We had control
systems on board the model as well as high pressure air that we
used to simulate the engines." The model was constrained only by a
tether cable.
In the National Air and Space Museum, the blended wing body
model will hang from the ceiling about 15 feet above visitors'
heads. "The model is an important part of a facelift of the gallery
that we hope will be done by March 2009," said Michael Hulslander,
the How Things Fly gallery manager. "This is the most visited
gallery in the museum, and the BWB will be the largest artifact in
it."
Research on blended wing body designs continues in the Subsonic
Fixed Wing Project of NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program. They
are part of hybrid wing body research into acoustics, structures,
aerodynamics and flight controls.