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The Silent Aircraft Initiative

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Quote[/b] ]The initiative is bringing together leading academics from Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with an extended 'Knowledge Integration Community' of representatives from all parts of the civil aerospace/ aviation industry. Members of the 'Silent' Aircraft Community are working together, sharing knowledge and developing the design for an aircraft that has noise reduction as its primary consideration. Partners already include BAA, British Airways, the Civil Aviation Authority, Lochard, Marshall Aerospace, National Air Traffic Services, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and Rolls-Royce.

In August 2004 The Boeing Company signed a memorandum of understanding allowing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to use some of its advanced design software to design and analyse aircraft that are being considered as conceptual design candidates. They were joined in late November by Cranfield University, whose academic staff and postgraduate students will be joining the research work on airframe, and engine, design.

http://www.cambridge-mit.org/research/sai

that thing looks pretty cool. wonder what it looks like inside.

sax10180x143.jpg

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Yet another pioneer project that will get canned as the scared shitless airlines wont have anything but the same old stuff with better mileage. icon_rolleyes.gif

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Having just flown 13+ hours home from vacation with the 2nd leg in row 45 of 47, the noise really isn't that bad. What is annoying is all the brainless zombies that obediantly sit in their seats buckled in UNTIL the pilot turns ON the seatbelts light, then they get up to go to the bathroom. I told the flight attendants that next time I fly I'll bring them a sack of padlocks to put on the bathroom doors.

The primary problem with the blended wing designs is that it's really going to suck for those who don't get window seats because of the extra-wide body design. Secondly, the arc over the window seats means that 74cm+ people like me will be folded over to try and fit in the window seats. Then again, with the global genetic trend towards midgets, us tall people are increasing becoming the disadvantaged ones.

Then there's the problem with trying to fit a triangular body into a slot intended for a tube at most airports. The A380 still uses a slot, just the wing tip width and tail length are longer.

What you're probably seeing is one of two things : A) some eco-commie intern's magical no-fuel no-noise flying machine that looks pretty on paper but has no basis in reality, or B), a quick proposal from some slacker doodled on a napkin to prove he's been working and not playing solitare. Oh horrors, I just exposed the twin truths of modern industrial marketing. whistle.gifcrazy_o.giftounge2.gif

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I believe the design is supposed to reduce sound levels for people who live on the flightpath, not in the aircraft.

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If I don't have a window seat, I start to freak out. I'm pretty claustrophobic. I just flew back from California and I had a middle seat - that was bad enough. confused_o.gif

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I believe the design is supposed to reduce sound levels for people who live on the flightpath, not in the aircraft.

Yes, I think so, too wink_o.gif

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on my last flight my dad had the air conditioning unit dripping on his head. thats what you get for $78 tickets.....

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Guest RKSL-Rock

The model is the of the Boeing Blended Wing body (BWB) concept. A few years ago boeing propsed it to the airlines. The project has some great benefits, reduced takeoff distance becuase of the fuselage shape, reduced fuel requirements due to the reduced power needs due to the increase in lift etc.

But there was really only one stumbling block... The reluctance of the airlines go with an unproven design vs the more conentional shape. It was felt that the average air traveller would not feel comfortable travelling in such an unsual air plane and that the lack of windows would prove to be unpopular.

The design itself is quite fuel efficient, has increase payload to weight capability vs conventional airframes but is dependant on composites to keep the weight down to the point where it becomes an economic balance between costs and cargo.

While the airline rejected Boeing's proposal it heavy lift capability is being investgated as a transport plane!

Info Link aerospaceweb.org

Info Link - Some background stuff

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Is this design quieter purely because the increased lift it produces means less engine power is required to get it airborne and up to its cruising altitude?

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The model is the of the Boeing Blended Wing body (BWB) concept. A few years ago boeing propsed it to the airlines. The project has some great benefits, reduced takeoff distance becuase of the fuselage shape, reduced fuel requirements due to the reduced power needs due to the increase in lift etc.

But there was really only one stumbling block... The reluctance of the airlines go with an unproven design vs the more conentional shape. It was felt that the average air traveller would not feel comfortable travelling in such an unsual air plane and that the lack of windows would prove to be unpopular.

The design itself is quite fuel efficient, has increase payload to weight capability vs conventional airframes but is dependant on composites to keep the weight down to the point where it becomes an economic balance between costs and cargo.

While the airline rejected Boeing's proposal it heavy lift capability is being investgated as a transport plane!

Info Link aerospaceweb.org

Info Link - Some background stuff

nice links, that Boeing 763-246C looks nice but i doubt it'll go into production. which is good because i hope they focus on the blended wing concept.

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Guest RKSL-Rock
Is this design quieter purely because the increased lift it produces means less engine power is required to get it airborne and up to its cruising altitude?

I thik its got more to do with wake turbulence than power. There are issues with large wakes 'transporting' engine noise etc over over greater distances.

The BWB concept is supposed to have less wake related 'issues'. What that means i really don't know but I’m guessing that due to the shape the wake produced is smaller combined with the reduced power needed to control the plane in almost all aspects of flight = less actual noise to transport. The briefing document i read a few years ago went on a great length about 'a new generation' of quieter high ratio bypass Turbo fans. It kind of read like a sales brochure for Pratt & Whitney at one point smile_o.gif

nice links, that Boeing 763-246C looks nice but I doubt it'll go into production. Which is good because I hope they focus on the blended wing concept.

The design itself keeps resurfacing every few years with new reasons/claims of its efficiency etc. Te last time i saw it reappear it had US Air Force markings and a refuelling boom. I think the time before that was a Transport version.

I think 10 or 15 airlines were approached by Boeing in 2000 with a view to kicking of a new project. This was the same time Airbus actually started producing components for the first A380 and had produced the latest A340-500/600 series aircraft. With no planned successor to the 747 they were trying to find a project that would attract customers away from Airbus. Most of the airlines didn’t like the BWB for varying reasons so the Sonic Cruiser came to the fore. After that got shelved for various reasons other older projects kept getting face lifts. it would be really good if they could get it built if only to see something so unusual fly.

Boeing have the experience with all wing flight control from the B2 project, but i think the major factor in the decision not to make it is the cost of the development of newer materials that will have an economic life span. To cope with the size of the wing even with the distributed loads in flight will require a material with better resistance to fatigue cycles than we currently have. I’m sure we’ll see it fly at some I just don’t think its going to be as an airliner.

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