Wind tunnel
Wind tunnel testing on a 12 ft wide blended wing body model was completed in September 2005. During April and May 2006, NASA performed wind tunnel tests on X-48B Ship 1 at a facility shared by Langley and Old Dominion University. After the wind tunnel testing, the vehicle was shipped to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base to serve as a backup to X-48B Ship 2 for flight testing. X-48B Ship 2 then conducted ground tests and taxi testing in preparation for flight. In November 2006, ground testing began at Dryden, to validate the aircraft's systems integrity, telemetry and communications links, flight-control software and taxi and takeoff characteristics.