Airport congestion and increased passenger numbers are the primary drivers leading to the development of larger and larger aircraft. However as aircraft size increases, it becomes more and more difficult to achieve corresponding improvements in aircraft performance. It is believed that for large civil aircraft the “flying wing” design may offer improvements in aircraft performance that are significantly greater than those achievable by conventional aircraft.

There have been a number of successful flying wing aircraft designs developed for the military market, but no civil flying wing transports. This has been caused by the differing payload, mission and airworthiness requirements, which, in the past, have penalized the design of a civil “flying wing” aircraft. Modern conventional aircraft are “fly-by-wire” where the flight control computer produces an aircraft response to pilot control inputs that is tailored to give optimum handling characteristics. This alleviates the need to tailor the airframe shape to provide acceptable handling qualities, which may allow a more optimal aerodynamic solution.