A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft which has no definite fuselage, with most of the crew, payload and equipment being housed inside the main wing structure.
A flying wing may have various small protuberances such as pods, nacelles, blisters, booms, vertical stabilizers (tail fins), or undercarriage. Some aircraft have no fuselage but do have a separate horizontal stabilizer surface mounted on one or more booms; these are also commonly referred to as flying wings, although this is not strictly correct. An example of such a design is the Northrop X216H.
Read more about Flying Wing: History, Design Issues, Bi-directional Flying Wing, Borderline Cases
Famous quotes containing the words flying and/or wing:
“Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, know what I mean ...”
—Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Monty Python’s Flying Circus (TV series)
“No Raven’s wing can stretch the flight so far
As the torn bandrols of Napoleon’s war.
Choose then your climate, fix your best abode,
He’ll make you deserts and he’ll bring you blood.
How could you fear a dearth? have not mankind,
Tho slain by millions, millions left behind?
Has not conscription still the power to weild
Her annual faulchion o’er the human field?
A faithful harvester!”
—Joel Barlow (1754–1812)