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 of its 747, and it has been
designed to fit within the newly created Air
Terminals for the 555 seat Airbus 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 in Long 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
with 1,000 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.
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