Boeing completed a successful test flight of its remotely piloted X-48C blended wing body aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert. The X-48C is a scale model of a heavy-lift airplane with a 240-foot wingspan that Boeing said could be developed in the next 20 years for aerial refuelling and other military applications. Boeing is working to develop the X-48C in collaboration with NASA, Cranfield Aerospace and the US Air Force Research Laboratory.
The remotely piloted plane is a triangular aircraft that blends the wings with the body, a contrast to the conventional tube-and-wing airplane design. The X-48C is a modified version of the X-48B, which was tested extensively at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Centre between 2007 and 2010. Boeing equipped the X-48C with two 89-pound thrust turbojet engines, which differs from the three 50-pound thrust engines on the B-model. The development team’s goal with the C model was to create an airframe noise-shielding configuration that is more fuel-efficient than the B model.