Abstract:

A new type of transport, which is different from the conventional cylinder fuselage plus wing but a blended wing body (BWB), is discussed. The concept of BWB is based on the consideration of reducing wetted area and friction drag for a given volume. The technical and commercial feasibilities of BWB concept, satisfying an unique set of design constraints for an 800-seat transport are discussed. The preliminary design study shows that the performance of BWB is better than that of the conventional configuration. Cruise L/D can reach 23 rather 19. For a class of 180-scat airplane, both maximum takeoff weight and fuel burn per scat of BWB may be reduced by 18% and 32% respectively, as compared to the conventional configuration(A380-700).Besides，BWB offers the potential of significant reductions in environment emissions and noise. The effective drag reduction and the performance improvement of BWB can be gained by using inverse design for a given spanwise aerodynamic load distribution, airfoil modification and 3-D optimization design. As BWB is a high integral configuration,the importance and effectiveness of multidisciplinary design optimization are discussed in the paper.BWB concept could be developed for a family of BWB airplanes with the potential for substantial commonality among its members. Increasing cruise Mach number for BWB is also possible.

Key words: civil , transport , design,  , blended , wing , body,  , multidisciplinary , design , optimization