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It is a bit counterintuitive at first, but flying wings don't necessarily have higher L/D.They can't trim high lift coefficients, so they tend to have lower wingloading/wing area to achieve the same takeoff and landing performance as a tailed aircraft.That's extra skin friction drag that lowers the L/D. They also tend to have lower aspect ratio because of aeroelastic issues stemming from the first bending mode of the wing being close to the pitch/plunge mode of the fuselage. Get those two close together and you're in serious trouble, so typically flying wings are not given as much aspect ratio. To be fair, active controls go some way towards relieving the problem.If you remove the LO designs, where everything is sacrificed to signature, there are hardly flying wings out there.
It is a bit counterintuitive at first, but flying wings don't necessarily have higher L/D.
They can't trim high lift coefficients, so they tend to have lower wingloading/wing area to achieve the same takeoff and landing performance as a tailed aircraft.
That's extra skin friction drag that lowers the L/D. They also tend to have lower aspect ratio because of aeroelastic issues stemming from the first bending mode of the wing being close to the pitch/plunge mode of the fuselage. Get those two close together and you're in serious trouble, so typically flying wings are not given as much aspect ratio. To be fair, active controls go some way towards relieving the problem.
If you remove the LO designs, where everything is sacrificed to signature, there are hardly flying wings out there.
