Aviation giants Airbus and Boeing are showing off their latest tech and innovations at the 2024 Farnborough Air Show.
ADVERTISEMENTThis year’s Farnborough International Airshow, one of the world’s biggest aviation trade fairs and attracts delegates, traders and enthusiasts from across the world, got underway this week..
On Monday, the first day of the five-day airshow, Airbus showcased its newest passenger jet which has sustainability at the core of its design.
A single-aisle plane, the A321 XLR burns 30 per cent less fuel and boasts a prospective range of 4,700 nautical miles (nm), the range Airbus believes will beats a lot of the aircraft's larger, traditional long-haul competitors.
“Wings and fuel, engines, propulsion are two areas where we can make the aircraft more efficient,” Sue Partridge, Head of the Wing of Tomorrow programme at Airbus, said.
“By improving the physics of the wing, we can burn less fuel and then the second key part of our technology development in Airbus is then about developing how to burn different fuels, like for example sustainable aviation fuel and even hydrogen on the next generation of aircraft,” Partridge added.
The fuel efficiency of the A321 XLR is good news for airlines that want to be able to fly cheaper, narrow-body jets on long-haul flights.
The company’s A350, which is already slated for routes such as London to Mumbai, has a composite wing which is lighter than metallic structures.
Boeing's bigger baggage capacity
Beset by an ongoing safety and manufacturing crisis, the American aviation giant Boeing is not bringing any new jetliners to take part in aerial displays in this year’s airshow.
Boeing instead used its exhibits to highlight its newest update to the long-running 777 jet range.
"The 777X is the next generation of the 777 and one of the most noticeable evolutions of the cabin space is the architecture within the cabin," said Laura Fitzgerald, a Regional Director of Cabin Marketing at Boeing.
"We’re offering two architecture types. The A-ceiling architecture, creating a sense of height within the cabin, and the B-ceiling architecture which offers a greater sense of space or width within the cabin," Fitzgerald added.
According to Boeing, the 777X has doubled bag capacity and reduced closing forces by over 40 per cent.
"Furthermore, to enhance the passenger experience even more, getting more visibility to the skies, we’ve instituted larger windows which are situated higher on the fuselage offering that greater view to the outside," Fitzgerald said.
In addition to key aircraft manufacturers, the show hosts over 100 exhibitions for businesses from the aerospace, defence, security, and space sectors.
For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.
