
Facetmobile FMX-4 Research Airplane (2008) - akavel
http://www.wainfan.com/facet.htm
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reitanqild
Trying to make it stay on the front page until the aviators and aircraft
mechanics wake up and come online ;-)

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akavel
which is when?

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reitanqild
A couple of days ago. Either they are fewer than I thought or they didn't find
it very interesting or something else :-)

At least we got some information: "There is a long list of excellent aircraft
like the Long EZ and the Facetmobile that..."

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mysterydip
I've loved the facetmobile since I first read about it several years ago. If I
ever get to the part of my bucket list that says "build experimental
airplane", I'll model it after this.

Could be complete coincidence, but I like how it resembles a nighthawk from
the side view (oshkosh pic). The tail designation N117WD makes me think I'm
not alone in that observation :)

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demarq
It's cheap, stable, and spacious. So why hasn't this taken off?

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blunte
I suspect it has much to do with people being slow to accept big changes in
some systems.

Boeing (and surely other airplane manufacturers) has investigated and
considered lifting body designs -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_wing_body](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_wing_body)
\- but chose to move forward with traditional designs. I don't see the news
item now, but I read that Boeing felt it was just too radical for passengers
to accept (despite the significant advantages).

It will probably take some wealthy "renegade" type to start a new airplane
company that offers new designs like this.

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smoyer
I saw Lee Majors crash one of those at the beginning of each episode of the
"Six Million Dollar Man" [1] in the early to mid '70s. Lifting bodies are a
cool idea but with inflation, can we afford to rebuild the people that crash
them?

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoLs0V8T5AA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoLs0V8T5AA)

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thom
Wonderfully reminiscent of something out of Elite or Frontier. Really want to
see one of these floating towards a spinning space station before hitting the
side and exploding spectacularly.

