Curious how werewolves could work without magic? Wondering how far you could fall while wearing a suit of armor without getting killed? Curious what to make your sword of legend out of?
This is the place to ask.
I mostly write fiction, but my dayjo...
"Why is a Flying Wing design for an aircraft more aerodynamic than a delta wing? Specifically, would a Flying Wing design serve any benefit in a distant space environment, where Earth gravity no longer has an effect on you?"
Great questions. Half of this answer will be defining terms. Feel free to skip along down to the actual answer if you don't feel like reading a short dictionary of aeronautical nonsense.
First, what does "aerodynamic" actually mean?
We most often talk about being aerodynamic when referring to cars. With cars the definition is pretty simple, we want less drag. But with airplanes we're not just concerned about drag, we're concerned about the lift-to-drag ratio.
What is "drag?"
Drag is basically wind resistance. Things that slice cleanly through the air like darts or Formula 1 race cars have very little drag. Things like parachutes and school busses have kind of a lot.
What is "lift" (I told you this would be all definitions)?
Lift is the term used to describe the force that pulls an airplane up and keeps it in the air. This is generated by air passing horizontally over the wing. The cross-sectional shape of the wing (or aerofoil(or airfoil if you're american)) creates a lower pressure above the wing than below the wing, which results in an upward force. (Look up Bernoulli's Principle if you want to learn more about that magic)
In short, wings create lift as they pass forward through air. The more wing area you have on a plane, the more lift you can potentially generate.
Why do I care about all this?
The idea of a flying wing airplane is that the whole plane is a wing. Every portion of the surface of the plane is contributing to lift. That should, in theory, make a very fuel efficient plane. Lots of lift, no wasted surface area creating unnecessary drag.
Unfortunately, flying wings have some real downsides. They're very unstable and difficult to control. With all that lift and no trailing tail, they don't really like to fly in straight lines. Also, they don't have a lot of internal space for people or things; they're really flat. So while theoretically very cool, they're usually rather impractical.
So let's talk about "delta wings." To do that it's probably best to compare them with the other two most common wing configurations: straight, and swept. These describe the profile of wings as seen from above.
Straight wings stick straight out from the side of a plane. They're easy to make, and very stable at low speeds. You see these on pretty much all single prop planes.
Swept wings are what you see on your big airliners like 747s. Rather than going straight sideways, they are angled backwards away from the nose of the plane (typically) and usually taper as they go.
The reason we us swept wings is that they work better at higher speeds. As you strap jets to your plane and get going really fast, the airflow over the wings starts behaving badly and we figured out that a swept wing helped control some of those unpleasant effects that increase drag, make you control flaps stop doing anything useful, and also sometimes tear your wings apart.
The "Delta wing" is a class of wing shapes that is best described as triangular. At their simplest, they look like a pair of right-angled triangles were glued to the side of an airplane body. They are less "aerodynamic" than swepts wings because they have a lower lift-to-drag ratio. What delta wings are good for, though, is supersonic flight.
Supersonic airflow is a weird beast. At near supersonic speeds air starts to really misbehave. To manage that unruly airflow so that your wings don't tear apart and your controls still do something productive, you need thin, strong wings with a pretty specific profile. Delta wings are good for that.
What about spaceflight?
You might have already picked this up from the extended rambling above, but wing design is all about interaction with air. Given that there is no air or gas in the space between planets, aerodynamics does not matter.
You can make your spaceship any shape you want.
Seriously.
It can be a cube.
The only reasons our rockets need to be rocket shaped and have fins is because they have to get through our atmosphere. Once in space they can be a complete geometrical disaster.
All that really matters is that the center of mass of your ship is balanced in front of your source of thrust, and that the structure is strong enough to hold together when your thrusters are accelerating. Aerodynamic spaceships that never enter a planet's atmosphere are completely unnecessary.
To summarize:
-Different wing configurations are better for different kinds of flight: straight for slow, swept for faster, delta for supersonic
-Flying wings are potentially very fuel efficient but usually impractical
-Spaceships don't need wings and can be shaped like giant robot lions with rocket feet if you want
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