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Back in the Air
Posted by Bridget in Physics & Maths
The X-48B has resumed flight tests at NASA Dryden. After undergoing a major overhaul and upgrades, the Boeing / NASA X-48B blended wing body research aircraft resumed flight tests with a checkout flight Sept. 21 from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Centre at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
The subscale, manta ray-shaped, remotely piloted aircraft, also called a hybrid wing body, is a tool of NASA’s new Environmentally Responsible Aviation, or ERA, project. ERA aims to develop the technology needed to create quieter, cleaner, and more fuel-efficient aircraft for the future.
After completion of its first phase of flight testing, the aircraft was disassembled for a complete inspection and refurbishment. This new series of flight tests will focus on additional parameter identification investigations following installation and checkout of a new flight computer. The parameter identification work will evaluate the new computer’s control of the aircraft’s flight control surfaces and the aircraft’s performance.
(NASA / Carla Thomas) In addition to NASA and Boeing, the X-48B team includes Cranfield Aerospace Ltd. in the United Kingdom, and the US Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.
The team completed the 80th and last flight of the project’s first phase on 19 March 2010, almost three years after the X-48B’s first flight on 20 July 2007.
