Conceptual design of a medium size flying wing

Abstract

Flying wings are one of the most promising concepts regarding the ever-increasing air traffic demand. Furthermore, they help improving economic efficiency and are environmentally friendly, both in terms of emissions and noise. In the first place, the paper deals about the initial design of a medium size C-type flying wing, of the 300-seat class, showing that the aircraft is operationally efficient, and can beat conventional airplanes of similar capacity. It specifically exhibits some considerable gains in field and cruise performances. Second, the paper addresses the potential of some emerging technologies, such as laminar flow control, vectored thrust, and active stability, which provide additional improvements and allow the simplification of the original configuration to a U-type arrangement. A preliminary assessment of emergency evacuation is included.