Boeing "Blended Wing" Plane Will Carry 1000 Passengers

It's a "blended wing" -- not quite a full-on flying wing, but close to it. A conventional airplane has an obviously separate body and wingspan; a flying wing features nothing but wing, with the body of the plane inside the win. Or, putting it the other way, the plane's body is shaped like a wing, so the body provides lift too rather than just being lofted up by the wing.

The 797 is about halfway to a full flying wing.

And it's really cool looking.

There are several big advantages to the blended wing design, the most important being the lift to drag ratio which is expected to increase by an amazing 50%, with overall weight reduced by 25%, making it an estimated 33% more efficient than the A380, and making Airbus’s $13 billion dollar investment look pretty shaky. High body rigidity is another key factor in blended wing aircraft, it reduces turbulence and creates less stress on the air frame which adds to efficiency, giving the 797 a tremendous 8800 nautical mile range with its 1000 passengers flying comfortably at mach .88 or 654 mph cruising speed (another advantage over the Airbus tube-and-wing designed A380’s 570 mph).

Cool. God, I hate the Europeans.

Meanwhile, in further news to appeal to the enormous Dr. Reo Symes demographic, here's some cool video of a bridge getting the living eff blown out of it.

Thanks for the latter to Jack Straw.

The Most Famous Blended Wing... wasn't real.

Spielberg wanted a flying wing to represent the Nazis' advanced aeropsace programs, but in fact the plane shown is a more menacing variation of an Amerian Northrop design.

Pic from IndyGear.com

More Airplane Stuff: Video of shitty-ass punks spraypainting Air Force One with anti-Bush jibe "Stay Free" was in fact a hoax.

How'd they do it?

[Hoaxster Mark] Ecko acknowledged Friday that his company had rented a 747 cargo jet at San Bernardino's airport and covertly painted one side to look like Air Force One. Employees signed secrecy agreements and worked inside a giant hangar until the night the video was made. Ecko declined to say how much the stunt cost.

"It's not cheap," he said. "You have to be rich."

I guess so.

Thanks to msl.

posted by Ace at 07:38 PM

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