New Airplane Design By Airbus Can Reduce Fuel Consumption For A Flight By 20 Percent
Airbus has revealed a new blended wing aircraft demonstrator called MAVERIC. The company hails the aircraft design as disruptive with a potential of reducing fuel consumption for flight by as much as 20 percent. The technological demonstrator was first launched in 2017 and took to the skies in 2019. The flight-test campaign will continue until the end of Q2 2020.
Airplanes, especially the commercial ones, have not seen any significant upgrades over the several last decades in terms of design. Breaking this holdup is Airbus, which has now revealed a new blended wing aircraft demonstrator called 'MAVERIC'.
An acronym for Model Aircraft for Validation and Experimentation of Robust Innovative Controls, the MAVERIC stands at 2 metres of length and 3.2 metres of width. The company hails the aircraft design as disruptive, with a potential of reducing fuel consumption for flight by as much as 20 percent, in comparison with the present day single-aisle aircraft.
MAVERIC by Airbus
With the new 'blended wing body' configuration, Airbus is potentially looking at new possibilities for the type of propulsion systems as well as their integration. Apart from the propulsion mechanism, the new design might lead to a completely redesigned cabin for the airline too.
Although the MAVERIC is still in the demonstration stage, Airbus is optimistic about it, ¡°This technological demonstrator could be instrumental in bringing about change in commercial aircraft architectures for an environmentally sustainable future for the aviation industry,¡± says Jean-Brice Dumont, EVP Engineering Airbus.
The technological demonstrator was first launched in 2017 and took to the skies in 2019. The flight-test campaign has been on-going since then and will continue until the end of Q2, 2020.
MAVERIC by Airbus
The MAVERIC is not the only demonstrator project that the aviation firm is currently working on. In parallel, the company is working on E-FAN X (hybrid-electric propulsion), fello¡¯fly (v-shaped 'formation' flight) and ATTOL (Autonomous Taxi Take-Off & Landing), under its AirbusUpNext research programme.
The demonstrators are also working for the airline, with Airbus being able to achieve proof of concepts at a convincing scale and speed. As and when the MAVERIC makes it to production, it will be interesting to see how a design change will be able to redefine the concept of the modern-day aircraft.
