Late last month Airbus froze the design of its A320 New Engine Option (A320neo), the newly re-engined version of its established single-aisle family that will serve as an interim step toward an all-new narrowbody design that may not enter service until 2030 or later. The European manufacturer has just released its “master development schedule,” which foresees first flight by the end of 2014.
Airbus believes that the full suite of game-changing engineering advances needed to justify an all-new design remains more than 10 years away. Short-term prospective improvements, such as innovative composites and metallic materials, new engines and aerodynamic concepts, alternative fuels and advanced air-traffic management advances will all become available in the remainder of this decade, and Airbus is specifically supporting development in these areas. The world will probably have to wait until after 2025 for greater leaps, the company believes–including nanotechnology structures, open-rotor engines, laminar-flow and “smart” wings, fuel-cell technology and new cockpits.
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