Ever since Boeing introduced the 707 in the 1950s, passenger jets have looked pretty much the same: long tubes with tails, engines mounted below the wings. That shape may one day be transformed into the graceful silhouette of a manta ray. In February, a 400-pound, 21-foot-wide prototype of just such a bird will start practicing unmanned takeoffs, landings, and tricky slow-speed maneuvers at Edwards Air Force Base. Called the X-48B, it’s a scaled-down model of a theoretical 500-ton, 240-foot-wide blended-wing aircraft. Aeronautical engineers have long known that this design could be much quieter, more fuel efficient, and far roomier than a conventional cylinder. But recent advances - lightweight composite materials, fly-by-wire controls, sophisticated flight systems - have made building one of these planes more feasible. Commercial versions have been proposed - imagine a flying auditorium - but the X-48B is more likely to debut as a US military transport plane circa 2022.
- Karrie Jacobs
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