날개-동체 통합형 항공기 개발 동향

A flying wing is a type of tail-less aircraft design and has been known since the early days of aviation. It is presented as theoretically the most efficient design configuration considering the aerodynamics, because of lowest drag, for a fixed wing aircraft. The Blended Wing Body (BWB) is basically one of a flying wing type with the payload, i.e., passengers and cargo, enclosed in the thick, airfoil shaped, center section. The BWB is a relatively new aircraft concept that has potential use as a commercial or military transport aircraft, cargo delivery, or as a fuel tanker. This paper presents the BWB aircraft, which is different configuration hitherto fixed aircraft, for the concept, its history, the advantage and the disadvantage, and the development trend of various kind of country including the United States.