Lingque and other next generation Chinese Airliner

delft

Brigadier
COMAC flew the Lingque-B model Blended Wing Body aircraft on April 21 on the Jingmen Zhanghe civil airport in Hubei province for the first time. Henri Kenhmann describes it on his site:
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The model weights 240 kg and has a wing span of more than 6 metres. The flight was autonomous and without input from the ground.
BWB should reduce drag and thus fuel consumption as well as take off and landing distances.
The larger part of the fuselage is built from composites and some parts as well as the undercarriage is made using 3D printing.
Its desiners, a group of young engineers from the « Dream Studio » (梦幻工作室) from the COMAC research centre in Beijing hope to investigate flight properties at low speed, manouvrability and stability of the configuration and lastly the controllability.
Lingque-B will be used for three types of flight test to validate successively the platform, performance and useful load. CFTE (China Flight Test Establishment), Beihang University and five other Chinese entities participate in the development program according to the « Open Lab » model.

More photographs on his site.
 

delft

Brigadier
My text is an interpretation or a slightly free translation of Henri's text.
The notion of future BWB airliners is already old. Boeing has been playing with the concept for decades.
My initial impression was that reducing the weight of the aircraft was the important matter but Henri points to lower drag no doubt because of lower wetted surface and shorter take off and landing lengths which would be achieved by larger wing area.
 

SamuraiBlue

Captain
My text is an interpretation or a slightly free translation of Henri's text.
The notion of future BWB airliners is already old. Boeing has been playing with the concept for decades.
My initial impression was that reducing the weight of the aircraft was the important matter but Henri points to lower drag no doubt because of lower wetted surface and shorter take off and landing lengths which would be achieved by larger wing area.
Larger wing area equate to more drag resulting to bad fuel economy, something a passenger airliner would not select.
 

delft

Brigadier
Larger wing area equate to more drag resulting to bad fuel economy, something a passenger airliner would not select.
As I understand it part of the advantage of BWB is that while the wetted area of the whole aircraft is reduced the wing area is increased. I also expect strong vortices from the highly swept inner leading edges contributing to the lift at take off and landing.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Boeing has been playing with the concept for decades.
Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Airbus have all been working on concepts of a Blended wing or Hybrid blended wing body types. 2017-04-23-COMAC-fait-voler-le-prototype-Lingque-B-à-fuselage-intégré-05.jpgWhat we see here though is not a full blended wing body but a Hybrid wing body.
Blended_Wing_Concept_Art.jpg
This "797" is based on a full Blended wing body type. the whole Aircraft is wing. ( This was a popular Mechanics cover)
X-48B_from_above.jpg
Boeing X48 model, perfect for a drone or bomber or at a stretch or large cargo bird but for an Airliner...well The photo above shows just how awkward it would be on a commercial Airport runway. what it doesn't show is the lack of creature comforts. I mean window seats would be at a premium a very very wide ilse awkward boarding. Bx0lSLrIUAA3e0F.jpg
Lockheed Martin was more or less chased out of the Commercial widebody Airliner market some time back, but they have shown an interest from the military logistics perspective. What we see here is a variation of a Hybrid wing body. upfront you have a major wing shape with bulbous nose, but about 3/5ths of the way back you get a conventional structure. It's a Chimera, B2 at the nose, C17 at the Arse. For a military bird Creature comforts don't matter. this shape lends itself to a Military transport or Tanker.2_airbus-concept.jpg
Airbus and the lingque seem the closest to each other in concept you have a structure that is easily recognized as a fuselage, but the wings and fuselage are blended into each other. A much more conventional body.
Now these concepts, have over wing engines this is because One major want is reduced noise pollution the other is it actually gives better lift.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
:eek: OMG Mace that's so Ugly It doesn't need lift the Earth just rejects it on principle! ;)Hybrid wing.png
That brings us to another reason for Top mounting engines. Size of the Engines. Each new generation of Airliner Engines has increased in Diameter over the last Almost to the point today where the Engine Nacelles are about as big around as the Fuselage! As this happens Airliner designers have to compensate by building larger landing gear and finding ways to mount longer heavier landing gear. by moving the engines above the wing and into the Air the landing gear no longer becomes and issue.
 
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