Handling Qualities of a Blended Wing Body Aircraft

Abstract

The blended wing body (BWB) is a tailless aircraft with the potential to use 27% less fuel than a conventional aircraft with the same passenger capacity and range. The primary purpose of the current study was to determine the handling qualities of the BWB, using piloted-handling trials in a moving-base simulator. The secondary purpose was to determine the effect of simulator motion on handling-quality ratings. De Castro conducted piloted-handling trials in a fixed-base simulator. De Castro's tasks and flight model were modified in the current study. In the current study, three subjects rated the handling qualities as Level 1 or 2, depending on the task. Simulator motion did not have a significant effect on the results.ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Peter Grant for welcoming me into the Vehicle Simulation Group and sharing his knowledge. Professor Grant gave me a choice of several interesting thesis topics; I appreciate being able to pick the one I found most exciting. I would also like to thank Bruce Haycock, Stacey Liu, and Amir Naseri for their help with setting up the piloted-handling trials and their expertise in flight simulation. To the pilots who volunteered for the handling trials -I thank you for participating. This research was made far more meaningful because of your contribution.

On the maximisation of control power in low-speed flight

“…For example, the trailing-edge surfaces may consist of a body flap inner and outer flaps and ailerons that may be used for lift, pitch or roll control. The present work extends existing knowledge on the subject in two directions: (i) on theoretical side (10)(11)(12)(13) by allowing for the deflections of multiple control surfaces, that gives more options to obtain the desired forces or moments with less risk of flow separation or aeroelastic effects; (ii) on the application side (14)(15)(16)(17) by considering not only minimum drag but also maximum drag (e.g. for fast descent) and maximum control moments for emergencies, such an engine-out condition.…”

The impact of control allocation on trim drag of blended wing body aircraft

“…There is a direct pre-assigned relation between the flight control surfaces and the pilot input. The same BWB configurations were further studied by means of piloted simulation using a motion base simulator by Peterson and Grant [30]. Roysdon and Khalid [31] studied the lateral-directional stability of a small business jet BWB using computational fluid dynamics and flight simulation and found that good controllability can be achieved.…”