Jun 072011
The future of subsonic cargo aircraft, as seen from the vantage point of NASA-Langley in 1978:
Note that these mostly seem to be Boeing aircraft (or derived from Boeing aircraft at the very least). The “Twin” from 1980 was previously shown HERE. The “Spanloader” appears to be the Boeing Model 759-165A shown HERE. The “Advanced Freighter” and “Laminar Flow Control” can be seen in posts from the future (meant to, jsut never got around to it…)
3 Responses to “The future that wasn’t: Aviation after 1978”
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Well we did get some of them; We got the 787 in the “fuel conservative” category, the dedicated 747 freighter in the “derivative” category, and the 747-8 in the “growth” category.
would love to see a three view and/or a pictorial of that laminar flow control plane…looks odd.
Laminar flow control involved slots along the upper surface to suck in the turbulent boundary layer. It turned out to be a maintenance nightmare keeping the suction inlet and the rest of the wing clean to the extent needed for the tech to work properly.
The wingtips on that drawing illustrate a separate concept of feathered wingtips to suppress drag from wingtip vortexes. As far as I know, a single wingtip vane proved to be more practical.