Engineers and technicians at the Arnold Engineering and Development Center in Tennessee have finished aerodynamic tests on a two-percent model of the blended-wing-body concept aircraft in the center’s 16-foot transonic wind tunnel. AEDC journalist Philip Lorenz III reports that the tests were used to evaluate the BWB flight characteristics at higher Mach numbers than it underwent earlier this year at NASA’s Langley facility in Virginia. The Air Force Research Lab is working with NASA and Boeing to develop the unmanned BWB and expects to begin flight testing a test vehicle dubbed X-48B at Edwards AFB, Calif., later this year. Boeing began ground tests at Edwards with the X-48B last fall and expected to begin flight tests earlier this year. AFRL’s interest is in developing a potential large capacity aerial refueling or cargo aircraft.
Air Force Global Strike Command has fielded a new prototype system for beyond-line-of-sight communications on the B-52H Stratofortress in a step forward for modernizing the Cold War-era heavy bomber.