Lifting Body Aircraft Configuration for the Long Haul Market

This report summarizes the development of a lifting body aircraft configuration, referred to as ‘LBA’, aimed to serve the long-haul airliner market. This study was conducted in response to the aerospace industry’s goal to reduce global aviation’s emissions by 2050, as well as considered market potential. The report covers the preliminary sizing and design considerations for the LBA as well as practical testing against current conventionally configured long haul aircraft, specifically the Boeing 787-9 and Airbus A330-900 NEO. To test the effectiveness of a lifting body configuration, the wind tunnel at Arizona State University was used to compare models of the LBA, A330, and 787. The result quality from the wind tunnel was constrained due to its limitations and challenges to accurately scale Reynolds Number to that of a transonic regime. This renders the data with low fidelity, and therefore rather insufficient. However, the observed trends are promising and could rationalize expanded research into the application of a lifting body fuselage to improve aircraft efficiency.