Airbus tests new smooth wing to cut fuel use by 4%

Airbus has flown the first test flight of new wings for its A340 that will cut CO2 emissions by 5% while maintaining all other flying characteristics of the plane.

The EU-sponsored Clean Sky ‘Blade’ project tests ‘laminar flow’ over the wings and involved fitting new end segments to the A340 demonstrator that cut air friction on the wing by 50%.

If proved successful, the wings could produce fuel savings of 4% for short-haul aircraft and Charles Champion of Airbus said “It sounds little, but for us this is huge.”

The test aircraft, nicknamed Flight Lab, took off from Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées) where the 9m outer wing sections – one wing made by Saab and the other wing by GKN Aerospace – were fitted. It landed in Toulouse after the three-hour, 38-minute test.

Part of the aim is to replicate glider wings where the air flows evenly and parallel across the top of the wing – meaning no rivets or any other obstructions – and to use carbon fibre composites to cut the weight of the wing panel to further reduce fuel needs.