Design Work Continues on Transonic Truss-Braced Wing X-Plane

Boeing has begun working on its future X-66 Sustainable Flight Demonstrator, taking off its engines removing engines and completing 3D metrology scans to make their plan of attack.

The donor aircraft, an MD-90, will see its wings replaced with a Transonic Truss-Braced Wing, a design featuring ultrathin chords braced by struts with larger spans and higher-aspect ratios. The resulting wing span should be wider and more aerodynamically efficient than a traditional wing, allowing improved fuel burn and lower emissions generation.

Boeing has dismantled some of the bulkiest elements of the MD-90 as it begins rendering out each element in 3D software. With the help of perfectly accurate measurements, it should be able to plan out the most efficient way to design, affix, and integrate the new wing design with minimal waste and retreading. Thanks to modern procedures and computer-aided design, Boeing can fully apply the old "measure twice, cut once" maxim as they go to work radically converting this one-off prototype.

"We at NASA are excited to be working with Boeing on the X-66A Sustainable Flight Demonstrator making critical contributions to accelerate aviation towards its 2050 net-zero greenhouse gas emission goal," said Ed Waggoner, deputy associate administrator for programs in the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

FMI: www.boeing.com