Blended Wing Concept 3000 Times Quieter, 35% More Efficient
by EcoGeek.org on 11.10.06
The Brits and the Yanks have teamed up to tackle what seems like an untackleable problem. How do we turn aviation, the loudest form of transportation, into the quietest? The Silent Aircraft Initiative has combined old ideas with some brand new innovations to design an airplane that would be 3000 times quieter than today's passenger jets. And, on top of that, their concept, the SAX-40, is 35% more efficient than anything in the sky today.
The Silent Aircraft Initiative is a joint project between MIT and Cambridge and it represents a collection of old and new innovations in aircraft design. The first, and most obvious design change here is the body. Today's tube shaped aircraft generate lift only with their wings, while every inch of a blended wing craft generates lift. The placement of the engines on top of the plane ensures that the body of the craft blocks the noise from heading towards the ground. Other more minor innovations, such as a smoothed undercarriage and aerodynamic landing gear further contribute to the aircraft's stealthiness.
But the most revolutionary additions to the SAX-40 are it's variable exhaust nozzles. Unlike any other aircraft, the SAX-40's exhaust nozzles can be expanded (to allow maximum thrust for take-off,) contracted (for fuel efficient cruising,) and pointed up or down, for optimum use during take off and landing.
Blended wing bodies have been touted for their efficiency before (see TreeHugger's Future Planes Might be "Flying Wings.") but they are, so far, ill-suited for mass production. And while the SAX-40 itself will probably never feel the wind beneath its wings, the leader of the Silent Aircraft Initiative, Professor Ann Dowling, says that the innovations created for it's design should be showing up in commercial aircraft over the next twenty five years.
Via ::BBC News
Egads - people working to create better technology for high-speed travel? But George Monbiot said that was impossible! And everyone knows he's the world's greatest genius.
As for airplanes being the "loudest" form of transportation, I ask, "If a tree falls in the woods, does anyone hear it?" I know that in my day-to-day life, road traffic noise has much more impact on me than some jet at 30,000 feet. Only people in flightpaths tend to be affected by airplane noise.
Most of these developments sound like military technology developed over the last 20 years. At least it will do some good now.
I agree with the above post.
High speed travel indeed is never going to be good for the environment. But it gets us where we want to go.
And yes, 'if a tree falls in the woods' I agree that road noise and (having lived on the tracks once) railroads probably bother more people total than planes, but it is technically true. But it's still an issue. The biggest deal, of course, is the increase in efficiency that came from their noise improvements.
High speed travel indeed is never going to be good for the environment.
Really? So you can predict all future inventions and innovations in that field? What kind of travel is "good" for the environment? Even walking involves eating food that's based upon an industrial agriculture and fossil-fueled global transportation system.
But it's still an issue.
Of course it is, but it's not the "loudest form of transportation", any more than its the most environmentally-destructive form of transportation. Road transportation has it beat on both counts by a wide margin, even though those speeds are around 1/10 (or less) of that of planes.
So you think a maglev train (capable of 400 mph) running on renewable, carbon-neutral electricity is bad for the environment? Compared to what?
Anonymous :: I think it's reasonable to say high speed travel will never be good for the environment. after all (as you have shown us) walking is never going to be good for the environment. thank you for proving hank's point for him.
Anonymous :: I think it's reasonable to say high speed travel will never be good for the environment. after all (as you have shown us) walking is never going to be good for the environment. thank you for proving hank's point for him.
Thank you for demonstrating your extremism by labeling walking as bad for the environment.
what is a maglev
Blended Wing Development Update:
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/05/21/213997/boeing-works-with-airlines-on-commercial-blended-wing-body.html
“We have been working with a couple of customers,” says George Muellner, president, advanced systems, for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. “We have a
customer, we have finalised what they want, and it is now an issue of customer funding and our desire to invest.”