Robert H. Liebeck, Mark A. Page, Blaine K. Rawdon, Paul W. Scott, and Robert A. Wright, “Concepts for Advanced Subsonic Transports,” NASA CR 4624, Sept. 1994. This was the first report describing the blended wing-body concept in some detail. This is a good place to start to see the evolution of the thinking and changes in the configuration as more and more technical work was done.
Mark A. Potsdam, Mark A. Page and Robert H. Liebeck, “Blended Wing Body Analysis and Design,” AIAA Paper 97-2317, June 1997. Applied Aero Proceedings, Vol. 2, pp. 799-805. This paper summarizes the concept and then presents some details on the aerodynamic work. They rediscovered what happens when you squeeze the chord at midspan. Because the spanload will tend to be smooth, when the chord is small the section lift coefficient becomes large, and they found separation in this area of the wing. All in all a good paper on configuration design.
Rodriguez, E.L., “Validation of CFD Methods on a Boundary Layer Ingesting Inlet,” AIAA-98-0925, 1997.
R.H. Liebeck, M.A. Page and B.K. Rawdon, “Blended-Wing-Body Subsonic Commercial Transport,” AIAA Paper 98-0438, Jan. 1998. This paper discusses the concept and its evolution in general terms.
Sean Wakayama and Ilan Kroo, “The Challenge and Promise of Blended-Wing-Body Optimization,” AIAA Paper 98-4736, Sept. 1998.
Sean Wakayama, “Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of the Blended-Wing-Body,” AIAA Paper 98-4938, Sept. 1998.
Anabtawi, A.J., Blackwelder, R.F., Lissaman, P.B.S., Liebeck, R.H., “An Experimental Investigation of Boundary Layer Ingestion in a Diffusing S-Duct With and Without Passive Flow Control,” 37th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, NV, AIAA Paper 99-0739, Jan. 1999.
Clark, L.R., Gerhold, C.H., “Inlet Noise Reduction by Shielding for the Blended-Wing-Body Airplane”, AIAA-99-1937, 1999
Rodriguez, D.L., “A 3D Multidisciplinary Design Method for Boundary Layer Ingesting Inlets,” 38th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, NV, AIAA-2000-0424, Jan. 2000.
Dino Roman, J.B. Allen, and R.H. Liebeck, “Aerodynamic Design Chalenges of the Blended-Wing-Body Subsonic Transport,” Applied Aerodynamics Meeting, Denver, CO, AIAA Paper 2000-4335, Aug., 2000
Douglas Cameron and Norman Princen, “Control Allocation Challenges and Requirements for the Blended Wing Body,” AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conf., Denver, CO., AIAA-2000-4539, 2000.
Sean Wakayama, “Blended-Wing-Body Optimization Problem Setup,” MAO Conf., Long Beach, CA, AIAA-2000-4740, Sept., 2000.
Robert H. Liebeck, “Design of the Blended-Wing-Body Subsonic Transport”, 2002 Wright Brothers Lecture, 40th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting & Exhibit, Reno, NV, AIAA-2002-0002, Jan. 2002.
M. Laban, P. Arendsen, W. Rouwhorst, and W. Vankan, “A Computational Design Engine for Multi-Disciplinary Optimisation with Aplication to a Blended Wing Body Configuration,” 9th AIAA/ISSMO Symposium on Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization,” Atlanta, GA, AIAA Paper 2002-5448, Sept., 2002. This paper has a good description of the control limits for balance.
N. Qin, A. Vavalle, A. Le Moigne, M. Laban, K. Hackett, and P. Weinerfelt, “Aerodynamic Studies for Blended Wing Body Aircraft,” 9th AIAA/ISSMO Symposium on Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization,” Atlanta, GA, AIAA Paper 2002-5448, Sept., 2002.
Martin Stettner and Ralph Voss, “Aeroelastics, flight mechanics and handling qualities of the MOB BWB Configuration,” 9th AIAA/ISSMO Symposium on Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization,” Atlanta, GA, AIAA Paper 2002-5449, Sept., 2002.
Richard Gilmore, Sean Wakayama and Dino Roman, “Optimization of High-Subsonic Blended-WING-Body Configurations,” 9th AIAA/ISSMO Symposium on Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization,” Atlanta, GA, AIAA Paper 2002-5666, Sept., 2002.
Martin Carlsson, “Control Surface Response of a Blended Wing-Body Aeroelastic Wind Tunnel Model,” 41st Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, NV, AIAA-2003-0450, 6-9 Jan., 2003.
Dino Roman, Richard Gilmore and Sean Wakayama, “Aerodynamics of High-Subsonic Blended Wing-Body Configurations”, 41st Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, NV, AIAA-2003-0554, 6-9 Jan., 2003.
Yan-Yee Andy Ko, “The Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of a Distributed Propulsion Blended-Wing-Body Aircraft,” Ph.D. Dissertation, April 2003.
Sean Wakayama, Richard Gilmore and Derrell Brown, “Design Trades for a Large Blended-Wing-Body Freighter,” AIAA/ICAS International Air and Space Symposium and Exposition: The Next 100 Years, Dayton, Ohio, AIAA Paper 2003-2503, July 2003.
Andy Ko, Leifur T. Leifsson, William H. Mason, Joseph A. Schetz, Bernard Grossman, and Raphael T. Haftka “MDO of a Blended-Wing-Body Transport Aircraft with Distributed Propulsion,” 3rd AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Technical Forum, Denver, CO, AIAA Paper 2003-6732, November 17 - 19, 2003.
Robert H. Liebeck, “Design of the Blended Wing Body Subsonic Transport”, Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 41, No. 1, Jan-Feb. 2004. pp. 10-25.
See also the Silent Aircraft Project home page for more work o blended wing body configurations.
Note also that there is another page devoted to Flying Wing Concepts.
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direct comments and suggestions to W.H. Mason, whmason@vt.edu