Airbus tests ‘flapping wings’ in Britain for greener flights
Revolutionary “flapping wings” that one day could change the face of passenger aviation are to begin tests in south Gloucestershire within months.
Airbus is ploughing hundreds of millions of euros into the historic Filton aerospace campus near Bristol to develop the “Wing of Tomorrow”, as the European aircraft builder seeks to reduce fuel consumption through more optimal wing shape as much as by making jet engines more efficient.
The programme has concluded already that future wings need to be 25 per cent longer than at present, increasing the wingspan of the A320 family of narrow-body, short-haul jets from 36m to 45m.
By making the wings lighter through composite materials rather than the aluminium alloy used for the past 40 years, Airbus has worked on a
