Wing Integration
"Flying wing" aircraft, such as the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing and the Northrop B-2 Spirit bomber have no separate fuselage; instead what would be the fuselage is a thickened portion of the wing structure.
Conversely there have been a small number of aircraft designs which have no separate wing, but use the fuselage to generate lift. Examples include NASA's experimental lifting body designs and the Vought XF5U-1 Flying Flapjack.
A blended wing body can be considered a mixture of the above. It carries the useful load in a fuselage producing lift. A modern example is Boeing X-48. One of the earliest aircraft using this design approach is Burnelli CBY-3, which fuselage was airfoil shaped to produce lift.
Read more about this topic: Fuselage
Famous quotes containing the words wing and/or integration:
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Desert is born out of his bow,
Reward upon his wing doth go.
What fools are they that have not known
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—Fulke Greville (1554–1628)
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—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)