Here is a snippet from an article on the NASA X-48 Blended Wing Body (BWB)
X-48A BWB-LSV Description
The BWB-LSV is a 14%-scale version of the 450-passenger study aircraft. Built primarily of composite materials and weighing about 2,500 lb., the platform features a wide arrowhead-like body that blends into tapered wings swept aft. Flight control surfaces, or elevons, span the trailing edges of the wings while the rudders are located in winglets on each wing tip.
Three 240-lb thrust turbojet engines, from Williams International Corporation, Walled Lake, Mich., were mounted on low aerodynamic pylons across the rear portion of the center body. All three engines will operate from a single fuel tank located near the vehicle's center of gravity. The maximum speed of the BWB-LSV would be about 165 mph.
Electric actuators in the flight control system link the exterior control surfaces with a central digital fly-by-wire flight control computer carried in the center body of the aircraft. The aircraft was to be flown by a NASA research pilot sitting at a cockpit station in the remotely piloted vehicle (RPV) facility at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Instruments and displays in the RPV cockpit will provide the pilot with the same systems and performance data commonly displayed in conventional research aircraft cockpits.
Two small video cameras was be installed on the BWB-LSV. One, behind the mock cockpit windscreen, presents a forward-looking view on a large video screen in the RPV cockpit station. The NASA project pilot will use this view, along with the cockpit instrument array, to fly the vehicle. The second camera was mounted atop the rearward portion of the center body, to view external areas of the vehicle during flight.
Numerous sensors installed throughout the vehicle measure aerodynamic loads, air pressures, temperatures, engine performance, and other important test and research parameters during each flight. Data would be automatically transmitted to the Dryden mission control center and monitored during flight by project engineers and other members of the test team.
A spin recovery system built into the test aircraft would allow the vehicle to be flown to its maximum angle of attack and as slow as its stall speed. The system will be used to deploy a parachute if the vehicle begins an uncontrollable descent, such as an unrecoverable spin. The parachute attach line would be cut, separating the vehicle from the canopy as soon as stabilized flight could be resumed.
Construction of the BWB-LSV began in early 2000 and was scheduled for completion in late 2002. Integration and ground testing of the vehicle was to continue through 2003, followed by the test flight program. When assembly of the BWB-LSV was completed at the Langley Research Center, it was to undergo three months of wind tunnel testing at the Old Dominion University (ODU) Full-Scale Wind Tunnel Facility in Hampton, Va.
Research in ODU's massive 30 by 60-foot wind tunnel wwould include operating the engines and the external flight control surfaces at various air speeds. Data from this research will give engineers and designers a better understanding of the aerodynamics associated with the BWB's unique design prior to flight, as well as a unique opportunity to test the same vehicle on the ground and in flight.
