I’m always fascinated with new gadgets especially its appearance and features… which I always refer as RADICAL. The experimental aircraft from Boeing, X-48B, is one example. The image on the left shows its first flight at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California on July 20, 2007.

The X in front of the model number represents experimental… so, whenever you see an X in-front of any aircraft model (build by US), it means it still being ‘experimented’… not for production yet… I learned this from National Geographic 🙂

The X-48B resembles like a flying wing… no cylindrical fuselage like the normal aircraft. It is more like the Stealth Bomber B1 from USAF… aka BAT-WING. The other bat-wing is the Stealth Fighter F117A… which I see not really bats-like fighter jet but aircraft with lots of sharp edges. The sharp edges and the bats-wing design which make it stealth actually going against the aviation principles… so it is very RADICAL… it’s not supposed to be able to balance itself once airborne… but require thousands of computer instructions to stabilize it… and makes it the deadliest jet fighter.

You can read more about the X-48B at Yahoo

Images below provided by NASA shows Boeing’s X-48B Blended Wing Body at Rogers Dry Lake on October 24, 2006.