Natilus BWB

IMOHO the massive cargo door on the LE will be quite a design challenge, even before any certification attempt.

0531_Natilus_2A_EDIT-180518-1024x554.jpg
 
Last edited:
I still dont think it makes sense to build a dedicated comercial cargo plane, as long as DHL, Fedex, UPS are mostly using old pax aircraft as cargo aircraft. Also Airbus hasnt commited to the BWB for years and they probably researching it for more than 20y. But at least good to see that they are not dead yet, which was my assumption
 
Reaper said:
I still dont think it makes sense to build a dedicated comercial cargo plane, as long as DHL, Fedex, UPS are mostly using old pax aircraft as cargo aircraft. Also Airbus hasnt commited to the BWB for years and they probably researching it for more than 20y. But at least good to see that they are not dead yet, which was my assumption
Click to expand...

There are a lot of cargo flights though - and if some of the features required for passenger flight (e.g. high levels of pressurisation, windows, terminal docking) in return for even a modest increase in efficiency, it could save a lot of money.
 
Avimimus said:
Reaper said:
I still dont think it makes sense to build a dedicated comercial cargo plane, as long as DHL, Fedex, UPS are mostly using old pax aircraft as cargo aircraft. Also Airbus hasnt commited to the BWB for years and they probably researching it for more than 20y. But at least good to see that they are not dead yet, which was my assumption
Click to expand...

There are a lot of cargo flights though - and if some of the features required for passenger flight (e.g. high levels of pressurisation, windows, terminal docking) in return for even a modest increase in efficiency, it could save a lot of money.
Click to expand...

The big problem is that there already are specialized freighters like the ATR-72F and Cessna Skycourier that can do a very cost effective job of moving containers around with much less risk than this project. The odds that a small startup can successfully build and certify a complex design like a BWB are also slim. Even designing the smaller turboprop variant is going to be an enormous challenge.

Also, this is not the first attempt to build a small dedicated freighter. This old thread has a wealth of info about a previous project that attracted serious interest from FedEx before floundering.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/ayres-lm200-loadmaster.587/
 

Attachments

  • let-1-ayres-lm200-loadmaster.jpg
    let-1-ayres-lm200-loadmaster.jpg
    16.5 KB · Views: 40
  • FqYpECmXgAAutDH.png
    FqYpECmXgAAutDH.png
    197.2 KB · Views: 40
  • p0015595.jpg
    p0015595.jpg
    39.6 KB · Views: 38
Avimimus said:
Reaper said:
I still dont think it makes sense to build a dedicated comercial cargo plane, as long as DHL, Fedex, UPS are mostly using old pax aircraft as cargo aircraft. Also Airbus hasnt commited to the BWB for years and they probably researching it for more than 20y. But at least good to see that they are not dead yet, which was my assumption
Click to expand...

There are a lot of cargo flights though - and if some of the features required for passenger flight (e.g. high levels of pressurisation, windows, terminal docking) in return for even a modest increase in efficiency, it could save a lot of money.
Click to expand...
Airbus has researched the blended wing body concept since the 80ties and came to the conclusion, that the wing and tube concept is lower risk than engineering a new BWB, even if the performance is superior. It is not clear till today if Airbus even made money on the A-380. So I dont see a startup breaking into that market, especially if they dont have a couple of billions in their back pocket. It might work, if they find a different use case for the aircraft.
 
1746043845406.png
apparently still not dead. I wonder what qualification does Palantir bring to the table for aircraft engineering.
 
Natilus has contracted Ramy RC to build a flying model of their Horizon passenger plane design. Don't know much about the company but always nice to see Ramy develop and apply his skills and leverage new prototyping and composite technologies. Tyler Perry's facilities are quite something.

View: https://youtu.be/6sSr3gFUCVo

Edit:

TomcatViP said:
A 17 min youtube video for a scale model!?! Is that a joke?
Click to expand...

I view it as mostly a marketing exercise. Ramy has made a business of very large scale RC models and has gained the attention of manufacturers (Bombardier, Airbus, etc.) while doing so. The Horizon model doesn't seem to be instrumented in any way (yet, apart from the usual gear to come) to provide any data for Natilus and Ramy also seems to have considerable leeway in how the thing is put together internally. Upon being recommended the video by YouTube's algorithm I searched whether Natilus had a dedicated topic. As said, I don't know much of the company itself.
 
Last edited:
TomcatViP said:
A 17 min youtube video for a scale model!?! Is that a joke?
Click to expand...
What is your specific definition of "scale model" as employed there, is it polystyrene and tube cement?

As for me, I find the video to be about the manner of process quoted below,
this time for the Horizon aircraft,

SAN DIEGO (April 19, 2023) – Natilus, an innovative company producing a fleet of highly cost-efficient autonomous cargo aircraft, has successfully completed multiple flights of the subscale prototype of its Kona regional aircraft. The flight tests mark a significant milestone for Natilus and for the autonomous cargo aircraft industry by validating wind tunnel tests conducted over three years, testing the aerodynamic performance of the Natilus unique blended-wing-body (BWB) aircraft design.
The subscale prototype of the Kona aircraft took off from a private runway in Southern California and reached speeds of 70 mph. One of the key challenges with the BWB design has been stability – and the test flights validated that the Natilus configuration can fly without the help of a complex autopilot system.
Click to expand...

https://natilus.co/successful-fligh...pletion-of-full-scale-autonomous-cargo-drone/
 
Sorry to be annoying but a wind tunnel test campaign, even if it had lasted, oddly, 3 years is not there to validate the aerodynamics of a flying scale model... That´s not what tunnels do.

To validate the aerodynamics of such model, you do a quick check with a large size wind tunnel, if you want so, and fly the thing.

Also, there is nothing to validate here as the configuration has been extensively studied before and wind tunnel tested, CFD researched and flight model tested for stability of FBW ctrl for example...

70mph is nothing like validating the flight model of a large airframe and any aerodynamic coefficients. Those that believe so just won an exclusive check back class on Reynold number and similitudes.

If that thing is 5 m long and fly at 70mph, it would represent roughly something flying at 700mph with a length 50m at the same altitude. Do you really think that this Kona will fly at the speed of sound under 3000ft density altitude?

Hence the shape of the model, what means the cost they put in that marketing punch, didn´t need to be that refined with curvy sidewalls and smoothly blended shapes... The length of items on the airframe that would get a significant representative influence on the design are probably in the below metric size, not centimeters, not millimeters.

What I see here is just gaslighting, not a scientific effort. No need to go through 17min of video for that.
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom