Oblique Wing - NASA Airliner Research

NASA Airliner Research

There has also been investigations into an OFW platform being developed into a transcontinental airliner. NASA Ames performed a preliminary design study of a theoretical 500-seat supersonic airliner using the concept in 1991. Following this study, NASA built a small remote-controlled demonstrator aircraft with a 20 foot (6.1m) wingspan. It flew only once, for four minutes in May, 1994, but in doing so, it demonstrated stable flight with oblique wing sweep from 35 degrees to 50 degrees. Despite this success, the NASA High Speed Research program, and further oblique wing studies, were canceled.

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