Blended Wing Body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Wing Body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Year 1: design, build, test, and fly a 3D Printed, low speed UAV with BWB configuration • Mission profile:

Blended Wing Body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Professors Jason Etele and Mostafa El Sayed

2017-2018

Blended Wing Body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Professors Jason Etele and Mostafa El Sayed

2017-2018

Blended Wing Body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Design Build Test Fly

high speed UAV

Mission:

BWB configuration Fully 3D printed VTOL capability

4

Blended Wing Body (BWB) Configuration

Boeing and NASA BWB X-48C

Blending

Bombardier CSERIES Flying Wing

5

B-2 Spirit - Northrop Grumman

First Flight: 17 July 1989

Military Applications:

F-117 Nighthawk - Lockheed

First Flight: 18 June 1981

Blended Wing Body (BWB) Configuration

Conceptual UAVs:

BAE systems - Taranis drone

Blended Wing Body (BWB) Configuration

6

Potential Benefits for Civil Aviation:

Al Bowers, NASA, 2000

Blended Wing Body (BWB) Configuration

Reduced wetted area to volume ratio by up to 33%:

friction drag fuel burn environmental impact Direct Operational Cost (DOC)

Increased lifting surface: about 20% increase in maximum Lift/Drag (L/D) ratio

Reduced noise: engines placement above the wing and streamlined geometry

Increased PAX capacity: Reduced Airport-Airspace congestion and reduced Fairs

12% DOC, 21% Fuel efficiency, 6% Gross weight, 17% Greenhouse gas emission 7

R.M. Martínez, 2014

Potential Benefits for Civil Aviation:

Multiscale Mechanics of Advanced Materials and 3D Printing

Applications

Aerospace: Aircraft, Spacecraft, UAVs Automotive Biomedical

Manufacturability

Blended Wing Body Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Year 1: design, build, test, and fly a 3D Printed, low speed UAV with BWB configuration • Mission profile: RC controlled UAV to fly at maximum altitude of 10,000 ft and

maximum speed of 0.2 Mach (225 fps) • Airframe: hybrid airframe (composite (skin)/lattice material (primary structure)) • Payload: zero • Power-plant: Electric

Year 2: add VTOL capability to the BWB-UAV

Year 3: Expanding payload capability and modify design accordingly

Year 4: Expanding UAV mission profile to transonic/supersonic speed employing hybrid power-plant (rocket/jet engines)

Milestones:

Aircraft Structural Development in Aerospace Industry

Questions