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posted by martyb on Wednesday February 12 2020, @02:42PM   Printer-friendly
from the will-it-blend? dept.

Ars Technica reports (with nice photos):

On Tuesday at the Singapore air show, Airbus revealed one of its new technology test beds. It's called MAVERIC—short for Model Aircraft for Validation and Experimentation of Robust Innovative Controls, and it eschews the traditional airliner shape for a more unconventional "blended wing body" (BWB) design. This packs a lot more interior volume into an aircraft than one with a traditional long, thin fuselage would for the same overall length and wingspan. In fact, Airbus has been flight testing MAVERIC in secret; the project began in 2017 and first flew in June 2019. However, don't expect to fly on it any time soon—although it's airworthy, it's also only a scale model, measuring 6.6 feet (2m) long and 10.5 feet (3.2m) wide.

[...] Airbus thinks that a BWB design should be about 20 percent more fuel efficient than a conventional single-aisle twin-engined airliner using the same engines. If that number sounds familiar, that's because it's the same fuel savings predicted by another BWB design we explored recently, the Flying V designed by the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands.

Aviation Week has more juicy details (Javascript required) for those interested:

[...] Maveric is still being flight tested says Jean-Brice Dumont, executive vice president of engineering for Airbus.

Designed specifically to evaluate flight control systems adapted for delta wing designs, the flight tests will be followed by a second round of studies to evaluate wider aspects of the configuration including safety, manufacturability, airport compatibility, maintenance and support. "Let's be clear we are studying this as an option," says Dumont. "We have already learned a lot and tests have helped us understand the flight behaviour of this kind of configuration in a real flight condition. So far we have a green light which is why [we] are unveiling it, and we are continuing with a more extensive study."

[...] However, Dumont says the real driver is the environmental concerns facing the industry. "The pressure we are under and the fact we need to disrupt to reach emissions objectives in 2050 forces us to drive down avenues we wouldn't have gone down earlier. That's because the equation was not resolvable and now we believe it is." Dumont adds BWB configurations are also particularly attractive because they can more easily support non-conventional hybrid electric and, perhaps ultimately, all-electric propulsion systems.

"To take this concept further we will need to fly a 'Scale 1' or larger demonstrator, but before that, we must answer questions about airport interface issues and the propulsion system," says Dumont.

"What's the best fit for the BWB? Right now we have two podded engines but is it the right formula? In parallel, we are testing the EcoPulse with Daher and Safran in France which is teaching us quickly about flight controls and power controls for distributed propulsion. So, we are converging this into a potential product. I'd say the next step would be flying this at a larger scale, but at exactly what scale and when I don't know."

Under the EcoPulse project Daher, Airbus and Safran plan to fly a modified TBM 900 turboprop as a distributed propulsion demonstrator by mid-2022. Although the aircraft will retain its standard nose-section engine and propeller the TBM will be modified with three small propellers on each wing. Each will be driven by a 45-kW Safran ENGINeUS electric motor, fed by batteries or an APU. Airbus is contributing battery technology and aerodynamic modelling.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 12 2020, @05:44PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday February 12 2020, @05:44PM (#957289) Journal

    No fun allowed (grin).

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 12 2020, @10:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 12 2020, @10:21PM (#957434)

    Too late, I had it already ⁽ᵍʳᶦⁿ⁾