Blended Wing Body (BWB) is a concept where fuselage is merged with wing and tail to become a single entity [1]. The major advantage of this BWB concept is the way how it generates lift. BWB aircraft obtains lift from wings together with fuselage. Thus, Blended wing body has lift-to-drag ratio is greater than conventional airplane. The streamlined shape between fuselage and wing intersection reduces interference drag. The slow evolution of fuselage to wing thickness, gives more volume inside the BWB aircraft, hence, increasing payload and fuel capacity and thus the range of aircraft. The thick aerofoil sections and favourable span loading of the aircraft allow for more efficient structures, resulting in a lighter wing weight. A substantial improvement in aerodynamic efficiency is attainable due to a reduction in wetted area compared to a conventional cylindrical fuselage/wing design. After reading various technical reports about BWBs such as the aforementioned Boeing X-48 and SAI SAX-40, comparison between baseline-I and baseline-II it was determined that HWB shape is its lack of longitudinal stability. After the discussion VAHAK-1 came up with two solutions firstly, use of reflex cambered aerofoil with twist distribution over the wing and winglets which will provide stability and more efficient than the conventional aircrafts or else we can use blended wing body-canard configuration with vertical tails to give directional stability which will give high lift and good stalling characteristics. Canard will balance the pitch down tendency by the blended wing.
Last date updated on March, 2024