Aircraft

The UK government has become the largest investor in a €50 million ($65 million) Airbus-led initiative to develop a more environmentally-friendly and more cost-effective wing.

The UK is providing £17 million ($32 million) toward the three-year initial phase of the Integrated Wing Aerospace Technology Validation Programme developing new wing shapes to be incorporated in new Airbus aircraft designs from 2020. Of the remaining half of funding coming from industry, Airbus is expecting to contribute about €10.5 million and other partners the rest.

The first phase of the project will last three years and see Airbus and its partners from UK academia and industry as well as research centres integrating promising technologies related to wings, wing systems, landing gear and fuel systems.

Following phase one, the partners intend to go on to build a large scale physical demonstrator. The project currently involves around 50 Airbus staff in the UK but this is set to rise to around 100 as the project advances.