The U.S. Air Force will invest $235 million to help a start-up manufacturer build a jet with a blended-wing body that officials say could provide greater range and efficiency for military tankers and cargo planes and perhaps eventually be used to carry airline passengers.
We have been trying to make flying wings work for decades, since the jet engine I think. The stealth bomber is one, but afaik they are horribly unstable.
What makes this different from any other attempt?
Blended wing is slightly different than flying wing but they both date to the early 20th century before jets even. Computer advancements in controls has generally been the change over the last few decades for control of the flying wings. Blended wings are a pretty wide range and include things like the SR-71, B1 Lancer, and quite a few UAVs.
Oh interesting, what is the different? Blended wing has more of a fuselage?
Exactly. The flying wing is a pretty specific design but the blended wings have a much broader spectrum of wing to fuselage ratio.