I suspect it has much to do with people being slow to accept big changes in some systems.
Boeing (and surely other airplane manufacturers) has investigated and considered lifting body designs - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_wing_body - but chose to move forward with traditional designs. I don't see the news item now, but I read that Boeing felt it was just too radical for passengers to accept (despite the significant advantages).
It will probably take some wealthy "renegade" type to start a new airplane company that offers new designs like this.
Because it looks weird. Seriously. There is a long list of excellent aircraft like the Long EZ and the Facetmobile that never took off because, at the end of the day, people are willing to pay extra to have something that looks like an airplane.
I saw Lee Majors crash one of those at the beginning of each episode of the "Six Million Dollar Man" [1] in the early to mid '70s. Lifting bodies are a cool idea but with inflation, can we afford to rebuild the people that crash them?
I've loved the facetmobile since I first read about it several years ago. If I ever get to the part of my bucket list that says "build experimental airplane", I'll model it after this.
Could be complete coincidence, but I like how it resembles a nighthawk from the side view (oshkosh pic). The tail designation N117WD makes me think I'm not alone in that observation :)
Wonderfully reminiscent of something out of Elite or Frontier. Really want to see one of these floating towards a spinning space station before hitting the side and exploding spectacularly.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 30.3 ms ] threadStill, I love clever and intelligent engineering like this and I hope there's a future for something like this.
Boeing (and surely other airplane manufacturers) has investigated and considered lifting body designs - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_wing_body - but chose to move forward with traditional designs. I don't see the news item now, but I read that Boeing felt it was just too radical for passengers to accept (despite the significant advantages).
It will probably take some wealthy "renegade" type to start a new airplane company that offers new designs like this.
At least we got some information: "There is a long list of excellent aircraft like the Long EZ and the Facetmobile that..."
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoLs0V8T5AA
Could be complete coincidence, but I like how it resembles a nighthawk from the side view (oshkosh pic). The tail designation N117WD makes me think I'm not alone in that observation :)