Airbus Debuts – Bird of Prey, an Eagle-Inspired Concept Plane – Robb Report
Airbus believes that nature has some important lessons for the aviation industry, and it has just created a new aircraft concept to prove it.
On Friday, the European airline announced its latest concept aircraft, "The Bird of Prey", which was directly inspired by eagle's flying mechanics. Unveiled at the Royal International Air Tattoo Show in the UK, the concept is a hybrid electric, turbo propeller airplane, intended for regional transport, the company said in a statement. The wings and tail structure have individually controlled "springs" that are intended to provide active flight control. But as wild as design and "feathers" can be, the most exciting thing about the aircraft is a high-tech propulsion system that can reduce fuel combustion by 30-50 percent, making the aircraft much more sustainable than it already is.
"One of the priorities for the whole industry is how to make aviation more sustainable flying cleaner, greener and quieter than ever before," said Martin Aston, senior manager at Airbus. "We know from our work on the A350 XWB passenger jet that through biomimics, nature has some of the best lessons we can learn about design. Who can't help but be inspired by such a creation?"
While Airbus has no plans If putting the "Bird of Prey" into production, it is not really the meaning of the concept. Instead, the company wants to highlight the relatively untapped potential for biomimics. The plane's mixed wing-to-fuselage joint ̵[ads1]1; the innovation responsible for imitating the pitiful and aerodynamic arch of an eagle – is an idea. Airbus believes is actually realistic. The company also hopes that the concept will inspire young people to see it, as a decal along the plane's fuselage states, "Engineering is great."
The aviation sector is currently far behind its peers in terms of sustainability. Verge points out that this is mainly because today's batteries are too large and too expensive for an electric load and passenger aircraft to be a realistic possibility. Batteries are also not as close to weight economy as jet fuel, which currently provides 43 times more energy than a battery with the same weight. Due to the industry's struggle to cut down the aircraft for environmental aviation, KLM's CEO recently asked to "fly liability".
