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Skeptical
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Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Posts: 1661
Location: Cincinnati, OH
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 Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:36 pm Post subject: yet another unusual aircraft plying our skies |
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I heard a few years back that Boeing had dropped plans to pursue blended wing aircraft design, opting to continue with more traditional configurations for their airliners (the Boeing 787 being the most recent result). One reason for sticking with traditional design was that you could put more windows in a tube-n-wing style airplane - and people like to sit near a window.
What I was unaware of was that Boeing didn't totally scrap the blended wing. In fact, here it is as the X-48B, an apparent joint project with NASA:
Unless that's some clever CGI work, it looks like an operational prototype to me. You have to wonder what that thing looks like flying at night... 
S
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TheScamDetective
Joined: 15 Jun 2007
Posts: 1351
Location: California
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| Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:22 pm Post subject: |
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Skep
Would like to see it with more perspective. Looks to be sitting on sand or dirt with no tracks around it.
Is that the only picture of it?
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"It's our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
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to Harry Potter
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Skeptical
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Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Posts: 1661
Location: Cincinnati, OH
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| Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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Good eye, Scam. Unfortunately that was the only shot I could find from that particular location. Looks like the proverbial dry desert lake bed which is pretty hard but that plane is big and certainly no lightweight. You'd thing it would have left some tracks. No indication that it has VTOL capabiloity so perhaps that would indicate that the photo has been doctored.
S
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"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." -- Thomas Jefferson
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Jimmy
Joined: 16 Jun 2007
Posts: 44
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| Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 3:22 am Post subject: |
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| Skeptical wrote: |
Good eye, Scam. Unfortunately that was the only shot I could find from that particular location. Looks like the proverbial dry desert lake bed which is pretty hard but that plane is big and certainly no lightweight. You'd thing it would have left some tracks. No indication that it has VTOL capabiloity so perhaps that would indicate that the photo has been doctored.
S |
Well, actually, what you have here is a fool-the-eye paint job -- especially that nifty little windshield -- on an RPV with a 20-foot wingspan. Here, courtesy of Gizmodo, is a shot of it with actual full-scale people:
In case you can't view it, it's at
http://gizmodo.com/photogallery/boeingbwb/2252305
On Wikipedia they say it was on display at the Edwards 2006 airshow, and offer a photo of it there, here -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Edw-2006-X48-061028-01-8.jpg -- but evidently I missed it. And I have a number of photos taken in the very hangar where it was on display, too.
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Skeptical
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Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Posts: 1661
Location: Cincinnati, OH
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| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:48 am Post subject: |
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Nice find, Jimmy. I admit I feel a little foolish for having been misled by the photo but, again, it points out how susceptible to error our visual apparatus can be.
S 
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