X-48C - the Blended Wing Body aircraft

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This is quite possibly where aviation is going - a middle ground between stick-and-wing aircraft like we have now and lifting bodies where the fuselage provides the lift and the "wings" are much smaller control surfaces (ex: the Dream Chaser spaceplane.)

These are to be a continuatioin of subscale tests, ramping up to larger manned aircraft.

The payoffs: a significant increase in fuel economy, and a correspond reduction in noise.

The bottom pic shows seating in a 3-engine BWB passenger aircraft, but it would also be applicable to military and cargo operations.

Aviation Week....

X-48C Poised for Flight Tests

Boeing yesterday showed off the heavily modified version of the Boeing X-48 blended wing body (BWB) remotely-piloted research aircraft which is set to begin a planned six-month flight test program next week at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB.

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The BWB concept, which is also being studied as part of NASA?s ERA program, holds considerable promise for efficient operations. Studies to-date indicate the blended shape could be up to 50% lower in fuel burn and 40dB less noisy than a similarly sized tube-and-wing aircraft.

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Boeing originally hoped to develop purpose-made miniature turbofans to power the X-48C. However this evidently proved more difficult and expensive than expected and it was forced to adopt turbojets developed by Advanced Microturbo (AMT) of Geldrop, Netherlands. The AMTs replace the X-48Bs original trio of JetCat P200s, and are enclosed in the larger nacelle ducts representative of the higher bypass engines which were due to have powered the X-48C.

The company has therefore shelved plans to validate the noise characteristics of the low-noise configuration and Kisska confirms that the use of the low bypass AMTs rules out any acoustic evaluation. Longer term, Boeing hopes to use the X-48C as a stepping stone to tests of a scaled BWB demonstrator vehicle ?large enough for a pilot to fly.?