Hello all --
I'm looking for any information about experimental aircraft--past or present--that utilize "lifting body" type configurations. I've read the two books on NASA's lifting body experiments in the '60s, but can't find a thread connecting them to any manned aircraft or gliders (although I seem to recall having a styrofoam glider toy shaped like the NASA models, when I was a kid back in the '70s).
So far, the aircraft that I know of that are at least related to lifting bodies would be the Facetmobile, the Trautman RoadAir of the '50s, the Aereon 26, and that's about it. I guess there's a blurry distinction between the true lifting bodies--which have no separate wings, the planes with a Burnelli-type airfoil-section fuselage, and the blended wing/fuselage designs of today. I'm most interested in the designs that have no discernable wings extended beyond the fuselage.
Any information or opinions about lifting body designs--in concept, in models or full-size craft--would be very welcome.
Cheers --
Robert
I'm looking for any information about experimental aircraft--past or present--that utilize "lifting body" type configurations. I've read the two books on NASA's lifting body experiments in the '60s, but can't find a thread connecting them to any manned aircraft or gliders (although I seem to recall having a styrofoam glider toy shaped like the NASA models, when I was a kid back in the '70s).
So far, the aircraft that I know of that are at least related to lifting bodies would be the Facetmobile, the Trautman RoadAir of the '50s, the Aereon 26, and that's about it. I guess there's a blurry distinction between the true lifting bodies--which have no separate wings, the planes with a Burnelli-type airfoil-section fuselage, and the blended wing/fuselage designs of today. I'm most interested in the designs that have no discernable wings extended beyond the fuselage.
Any information or opinions about lifting body designs--in concept, in models or full-size craft--would be very welcome.
Cheers --
Robert
