Airbus previews next-gen airliner with bird-inspired wings
Airbus has lifted the curtain just a tad and given us a glimpse at the future of commercial aviation. At the Airbus Summit 2025 in Toulouse, the company presented a view of the technology that will create the single-aisle airliner of tomorrow.
Wait aren't all airplane wings bid inspired?
Wait, so what has been inspiring wings up to this?
Bumble bees.
Bumble bees are actually inspiring wing designs now. For a long time our best theories on aerodynamics couldn't explain how Bumblebees could fly. Given the relative mass and wing size the bumble bee they couldn't explain how a bumble bee could fly.
In the last decade or so they figured it out after putting enough bumble bees into wind tunnels. Bumblebees generate additional lift by creating little vortexes in the air. So now wing designers are trying to incorporate that effect into their designs.
How many blades do you have to add to a turboprop before it's promoted to an open turbofan and touted as a major new innovation?
Based on my image search engineering, the answer to your question is 2.
Based on my one semester of air breathing propulsion that I took 25 years ago, I'm guessing there is more going on inside the turbine part of the engine that both allows sustainable fuels that current turbofans can't and also allows compression ratios at lower fan speeds that allows an open fan with fewer blades. Again, I barely passed air breathing propulsion back then and haven't used ANY of that knowledge since, so I'm mostly talking out of my ass.
I've seen turboprops in museums and on the internet with around six or eight blades. When I looked on the Wikipedia page for propfan engines, which seems to be another name for an open turbofan, the distinction seemed to be mainly how the blades were shaped (like propellor blades or turbine blades) and how tightly-integrated everything is (you can swap the propeller out on a turboprop).
Mentour Pilot did a video about the CFM RISE open fan engines a few months ago, they’re somewhere between a turboprop and a geared turbofan. Able to cruise at turbofan speeds, but much higher bypass ratios like turboprops. They’re not technically new, but they’re possible now due to material advances. Pretty cool concept.
Airbus explained that it ran the numbers and found that, while it could build a successful hydrogen airliner, the plane would be successful in the same way that Concorde was successful. In other words, a technological triumph, but a commercial failure.
Just like any other hydrogen powered... Anything.
It's because hydrogen is a terrible fuel. In theory it could work, but there were so many practical problems with compressing the hydrogen into storage tanks and then keeping it in those storage tanks but the amount of effort you have to go through to make it work completely negates any performance benefits.
I take from that, that we will only get technological breakthroughs away from oil after we break everything down and rebuild from scratch. Because the economy that allowed setting up fuel infrastructure a century ago, is now a much tighter fit.
It's more that Hydrogen is an inherently shit way of powering a vehicle, and liquid fuels are much easier to store and transport.
Biofuels are a much better option, in my view.
If you listen to the actual talk the bird they are talking about is an albatross and they are simply saying that to improve efficiency you need to make the wings longer and slimmer but then the plane will not fit in current aiport gates so they are working on folding wings.
I guess this is why so many boeing airplanes have been falling out the sky nowadays. They forgot and accidentally based their aiplanes on land dwelling vetrebrates.
Lol.
Lead engineer: "oh did you say bird, okay I thought you said bear."
I think it was a bee. After all everyone knows that bees can't fly.
Do they flap?
Depends how bad the turbulence is.
Yes actually.
(They fold like a Navy carrier plane so they will fit at existing airport gates.)
Neat! But not quite the ornithopter I was hoping for.
Aviation peaked with the Spruce Goose, AKA the Birch Bitch, AKA the H-4 Hercules. Been downhill ever since....
Never heard it called the birch bitch.
Hell yeah the wood plane
You can pry my aging Bombardier Dash 8 from my COLD DEAD WINGTIPS.
Rocket designs are worm(-with-diarrhea)-inspired!!
That's a great description!
Thank you.
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I much prefer it to the crude 'flying cocks' one.
So, they are building a DeHavaland-Canada Dash-7 ?
Yes, frozen gas powered Dash-7!
So not the picture in the thumbnail but a generic jet
To me "next generation" and propellers just don't mix, but I know nothing. Just want my jetpack.
Mentour Pilot did a great video on these open fan engines a few months ago. They’re somewhere between a turboprop and a turbofan. They’re better than traditional turboprops in that they’re able to handle higher cruise speeds like a turbofan, and they’re more efficient than turbofans due to a higher effective bypass ratio like a turboprop.
Plot twist: And they'll still pack their passengers like sardines.