A new type of transport-blended wing body aircraft

A new type of transport, which is different from the conventional cylinder fuselage plus wing but a blended wing body (BWB), is discussed. The concept of BWB is based on the consideration of reducing wetted area and friction drag for a given volume. The technical and commercial feasibilities of BWB concept, satisfying an unique set of design constraints for an 800-seat transport arc discussed. The preliminary design study shows that the performance of BWB is better than that of the conventional configuration. Cruise L/D can reach 23 rather 19. For a class of 480-seat airplane, both maximum takeoff weight and fuel burn per seat of BWB may be reduced by 18% and 32% respectively, as compared to the conventional configuration (A380-700). Besides, BWB offers the potential of significant reductions in environment emissions and noise. The effective drag reduction and the performance improvement of BWB can be gained by using inverse design for a given spanwise aerodynamic load distribution, airfoil modification and 3-D optimization design. As BWB is a high integral configuration, the importance and effectiveness of multidisciplinary design optimization are discussed in the paper. BWB concept could be developed for a family of BWB airplanes with the potential for substantial commonality among its members. Increasing cruise Mach number for BWB is also possible.