Now for something completely different ....

Boeing is preparing a 1000 passenger jet that could reshape the Air travel industry for the next 100 years. The radical Blended Wing design has been developed by Boeing in cooperation with the NASA Langley Research Center. The mammoth plane will have a wing span of 265 feet compared to the 747's 211 feet, and is designed to fit within the newly created terminals used for the 555 seat Airbus A380, which is 262 feet wide.



The new 797 is in direct response to the Airbus A380 which has racked up 159 orders. Boeing decide to kill its 747X stretched super jumbo in 2003 after little interest was shown by airline companies, but has continued to develop the ultimate Airbus crusher 797 for years at its Phantom Works research facility in Long Beach, & nbsp;Calif.



The Airbus A380 has been in the works since 1999 and has accumulated $13 billion in development costs, which gives Boeing a huge advantage now that Airbus has committed to the older style tubular aircraft for decades to come.



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.

[Mike]

Hey Hellcat, you're a bit early. It won't be April 1 for another 4 months.

[The Inspector]

Boeing has been messing around with the spanlifter design for a very, very long time! The biggest issues with using it as a people hauler is they have yet to overcome the huge gyroscopic effects that would imposed on those folks riding on the outer sides, granny wouldn't be real happy if NARROW SEAT AIRLINES gave her an 8 G whipcracker while turning short expedited final, it might spill her $5.00 cup of not so good coffee!
However, as a box hauler

granny wouldn't be real happy if NARROW SEAT AIRLINES gave her an 8 G whipcracker while turning short expedited final

That's too funny .... hehehehe

[bdk]

Boeing has been messing around with the spanlifter design for a very, very long time! ... However, as a box hauler

Actually, Douglas started the design in Long Beach.

You haul the boxes outboard of the pasengers.

I've always wondered how a roll in a P-82 would feel?

[t28pilot]

Hey doesn't George Jettson live in that spaceport on the far right ?
And isn't that Spacely Sprockets on the far left??

[The Inspector]

Some quick calculator crunching, average seat width is 19 inches, minimum aisle requirement for the Feds is 19 inches, that puts granny 23.75 feet outboard (outboardmost seat in row 11) of the core rows even with or inboard of the outboard engines, tell ya what, I'll fly the plane and you sit on the wing about the middle of the outboard flaps on a '37 and tell me how you like your seating spot as we do close in base turns

[Mark Nankivil]

The "photo" is a hoax or "what-if" - choose the title per your views. The drawing is one of the many iterations that have been looked at over the years. NASA is presently flying a scale model of the BWB/flying wing called the X-48B. As BDK noted, this all started with McDonnell Douglas and carried on by McBoeing and its PhantomWorks. There is a really excellent compilation of the flying wing/BWB history at:

http://www.up-ship.com/eAPR/ev1n3.htm

While you're there, check out the other neat stuff he has available. I'm ordering the XP-67 drawings and documents - one of those neat "what could have been" aircraft...

and NASA's X-48B:

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/X-48B/index.html

Enjoy the Day! Mark

[Roger Cain]

For Hellcat,

Here's the competition from Airbus, and as you can see, it's flying already.

[gary1954]

My sides hurt, use guys are funny

[chico]

For Hellcat,

Here's the competition from Airbus, and as you can see, it's flying already.

Ahh yes, the new air-short-bus service. I can think of more than a few folks who qualify to fly on those....

[Roger Cain]

A few more special editions