Aircraft
Airbus’s ‘Blade’ Laminar Flow Wing Demonstrator Takes Flight
Tests aim to achieve a 50-percent reduction in wing friction and up to 5 percent lower CO2 emissions
The Airbus A340-300 Blade demonstrator takes off from Tarbes, France, for a three-hour, 38-minute test mission. (Photo: Airbus)
The Airbus A340-300 Blade demonstrator takes off from Tarbes, France, for a three-hour, 38-minute test mission. (Photo: Airbus)

Airbus’s A340 laminar-flow test demonstrator took to the air for the first time Tuesday for the EU-sponsored Clean Sky “Blade” project. The four-engine jet, dubbed “Flight Lab,” took off from the Tarbes aerodrome in southern France at 11 a.m. local time and landed at Airbus facilities in Toulouse after a three-hour, 38-minute test mission.