Conceptual Design of a Piloted Quarter-Scale Flying-V Research Airplane

The Flying-V is a novel flying wing A350-sized airliner developed extensively at TU Delft. This paper presents the conceptual design of an experimental manned sub-scale demonstrator, which can serve to explore the performance, stability, and handling of the concept. The research consists of preliminary studies on performance, weight, stability and control, internal packaging, and cockpit arrangement. The main challenge was minimizing modifications to the full-scale Flying-V's outer mold line while housing the crew in a significantly smaller airframe. The final design is a quarter-scale concept equipped with twin Williams FJ44-4A turbofans that is capable of taking off at less than 120 knots and cruising at Mach 0.85. A cockpit with airliner-style adjacent seating was selected to optimize crew interaction and communication. In order to fit the crew station, the root chord was extended 44% aft to increase the section thickness, forming a protruding tail, resulting only in a minimal shift to the neutral point. Stability analysis indicates that the aircraft's open-loop Dutch roll mode is unstable at approach speeds.