Boeing X-48
| X-48 | |
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| X-48B | |
| Role | Experimental unmanned aerial vehicle |
| Manufacturer | Boeing |
| First flight | July 20, 2007 |
| Primary user | NASA |
| Produced | 2 |
 X-48B image
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X-48C during construction
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The Boeing X-48 is an experimental unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for investigation into the characteristics of blended wing body (BWB) aircraft, a type of flying wing. Boeing designed the X-48 and two examples were built by Cranfield Aerospace in the UK. Boeing began flight testing the X-48B version for NASA in 2007. The X-48B was later modified into the X-48C version. It was flight tested from August 2012 to April 2013. Boeing and NASA plan to develop a larger BWB demonstrator.
Boeing had in the past studied a blended wing body design, but found that passengers did not like the theater-like configuration of the mock-up; the design was dropped for passenger airliners, but retained for military aircraft such as aerial refueling tankers.
McDonnell Douglas developed the blended wing concept in the late 1990s, and Boeing presented it during an annual Joint AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEA Propulsion Conference in 2004. The McDonnell Douglas engineers were confident that their design had several advantages, but their concept, code named "Project Redwood" found little favor at Boeing after their 1997 merger. The most difficult problem they solved was that of ensuring passengers a safe and fast escape in case of an accident, since emergency door locations were completely different from those in a conventional aircraft.
The blended wing body (BWB) concept offers advantages in structural, aerodynamic and operating efficiencies over today's more conventional fuselage-and-wing designs. These features translate into greater range, fuel economy, reliability and life cycle savings, as well as lower manufacturing costs. They also allow for a wide variety of potential military and commercial applications.
Boeing Phantom Works developed the blended wing body (BWB) aircraft concept in cooperation with the NASA Langley Research Center. In an initial effort to study the flight characteristics of the BWB design, a remote-controlled propeller-driven blended wing body model with a 17 ft (5.2 m) wingspan was successfully flown in 1997. The next step was to fly the 35 ft (10.7 m) wide X-48A in 2004, but that program was later canceled.
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