PC: South China Morning Post
A Chinese research team has unveiled an aerodynamic model for a flying-wing passenger aircraft that could carry more than 800 people, according to the South China Morning Post. The design is 85 metres wide and 43 metres long, with a wingspan roughly 1.6 times that of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. The Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet, typically seats about 555. No full-scale aircraft has been built, but a 1:52 stainless steel model was tested in a transonic wind tunnel at speeds between Mach 0.4 and 0.8. The proposed design is 85 metres (280 feet) wide and 43 metres long, with a wingspan roughly 1.6 times that of the B-2 Spirit, according to the South China Morning Post. For comparison on capacity, the report states that the Airbus A380, currently the world’s largest passenger jet, typically seats about 555 passengers. The SCMP describes the Chinese design as seating more than the A380, at more than 800 passengers. The final design has a reference wing area of about 1,395 square metres (15,015 square feet), according to the report. The leading edge is swept at 37 degrees and the trailing edge at 28 degrees. The cruise speed is Mach 0.8. The concept comes from the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre (CARDC), a national institute that has contributed to major aircraft projects including the C919 narrowbody airliner and the Y-20 transport plane. The report states that the researchers originally developed the layout for a 250-seat aircraft, similar in capacity to long-range widebody jets such as the Airbus A330 and Boeing 767. They have since scaled it up to the 800-passenger class as part of a broader push for large twin-aisle widebody airliners that began during China’s 13th five-year plan, covering 2016 to 2020. The team is instead advancing prototype testing with a 1:52 stainless steel scale model, which measures about 0.8 metres in length and has a wingspan of 1.6 metres. The model was tested in CARDC’s 2.4-metre transonic wind tunnel at speeds between Mach 0.4 and 0.8. The model achieved a maximum lift-to-drag ratio of about 20 at speeds below Mach 0.7, dropping to 17.6 at Mach 0.8, according to the report. China is also pressing ahead with the C929, a 280-seat long-range widebody jet expected to make its first flight around 2030, and the C949 supersonic airliner, which the report says draws parallels with Nasa’s X-59 supersonic technology.
The design serves as a standard model for verifying wind tunnels, computational methods and testing equipment for long, slender flying-wing shapes, according to the report. They said its high lift-to-drag ratio and low induced drag could deliver longer range and lower energy consumption. The team wrote that “the results confirm its excellent aerodynamic performance”, qualifying it as a benchmark model for such configurations.
The concept comes from the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre. Details were published in June in the Chinese-language Journal of Aerospace Power. The SCMP quotes aerodynamics scientist Li Yonghong and his team as writing that the high-aspect-ratio flying wing has remarkable aerodynamic advantages. A full-scale aircraft has not been built. The researchers examined aerodynamic characteristics, boundary-layer transition, measurement accuracy, lateral and longitudinal stability, and structural deformation. The researchers added that the model could support studies of flow mechanisms and aeroelasticity, as well as the development of new wind tunnel testing techniques. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.