Blending Airlines

By: Riley J. Ruse
When you go to the airport for a plane to take you where cars can’t you wish for three features to be included in your flight; comfort, cleanliness, and a short ride. These days the conventional 747 airplane is mildly fast, packed full, and about as clean as living in a bug friendly home. NASA and Boeing are working on a future plane more sophisticated than any other real life transportation today. It is called the X48-B blended wing aircraft. The X48-B has the same wingspan as an A380 but is ¾ as long. If you wanted to imagine this plane taking off, try to picture a plane the size of a baseball field taking off like a conventional jet. AMAZING!! This technology is available now but building an aircraft alien to the public takes years of designing, testing and convincing. The companies behind this project have already built a 25 foot model, called Skyray 48, which flew to an altitude of 7500 ft. There is a good chance that within the next 5-10 years the first test flights of the full size X48-B will begin. It will be a bloody battle when this plane exits the hanger.