|
The BOEING 797
Boeing is preparing this 1,000 passenger Jet
Liner that could
reshape the Air Travel
Industry.
Its radical 'Blended Wing
Fuselage' design has been developed by
Boeing
in
cooperation with NASA Langley Research Centre.
The mammoth aircraft will have a
wing span of 265 feet
(compared to 211 feet for current 747),
and it has been
designed to fit within the
newly created Air Terminals
for the 555
seatAirbus A380, which is 262 feet wide.
The new 797 is Boeing's direct response to the Airbus
A380,
which has racked
up orders for 159 already. Boeing decided
to kill its 747X Stretched Super Jumbo in 2003
after little
interest was shown for it by airline companies,
but continued
to develop its 'Ultimate Airbus Crusher', the
797 at its
Phantom Works Research
Facility inLong Beach, California.
The Airbus A380 had been in
the works since 1999 and has
accumulated $13 Billion in
development costs, which
gives Boeing a huge advantage. More so because Airbus
is thus committed to
the older style tubular structure for
their
aircraft for decades to come.
There are several big advantages in
the 'Blended Wing
Fuselage' design, the most important being
the lift
to drag
ratio which is expected to increase by
an amazing 50%,
resulting in an overall
weight reduction of the aircraft
by 25%, making it an
estimated 33% more fuel efficient
than the A380, and thus making the
Airbus's
$13 Billion Dollar investment
look pretty shaky.
'High Airframe Rigidity' is
another key factor in the
'Blended Wing Fuselage' technology. It reduces
turbulence and creates less stress on the airframe which
adds to fuel efficiency, giving the 797 a
tremendous
10,000 Mile range with1,000
passengers on board
cruising comfortably at Mach 0.88 or 654
MPH,
which gives it another advantage over the tube-and-wing
designed A380's 570
MPH.
The exact date for introduction of the 797 is
as yet unclear,
but the battle lines are clearly drawn in
the high-stakes war
for future
civilian aircraft supremacy.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment