A modified Boeing (NYSE: BA) Blended Wing Body research aircraft – designated the X-48C – flew for the first time today at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The remotely piloted X-48C aircraft took off at 7:56 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time and climbed to an altitude of 5,500 feet before landing 9 minutes later.

The X-48C is a scale model of a heavy-lift, subsonic vehicle that forgoes the conventional tube-and-wing airplane design in favor of a triangular aircraft that effectively merges the vehicle's wing and body. Boeing and NASA believe the BWB concept offers the potential over the long-term of significantly greater fuel efficiency and reduced noise.