Airbus "Bird of Prey" green airliner concept

TomS

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Airbus has revealed a visionary concept from its engineers in Filton for an ultramodern green airliner of the future – one possible outcome of where today’s advanced technology may take us when designers’ imaginations are truly unleashed.

The Bird of Prey is a 80-seater, 1,500km range hybrid-electric regional airliner that incorporates the latest thinking in aerodynamics and flight control, structures and distributed propulsion to create the greenest ever future airliner. Using technology now under development, the Bird of Prey could provide a 30-50% reduction in fuel burn compared to equivalent aircraft today – a major leap in efficiency.

Says Jeremy Greaves FRAeS, Vice President, UK Corporate Affairs and Strategy, Airbus: “This is a visioneering project where we asked our talented flight physicists to imagine what the future could look like.” The Bird of Prey then, is an example of critical High Value Design (HVD) that combines preliminary engineering with creativity to define a product. Explains Martin Aston, Senior Manager, Airbus and project lead for Bird of Prey: “It’s that combination of imagination, innovation and awareness of science, then converting that into a viable product.”

Thought up by Airbus engineers at the UK’s Filton site who were given a brief to imagine the future of flight without any limits, the Bird of Prey was brought to life by a British superyacht and industrial designer – Rob McPherson of BezierLab. McPherson remarked: “When I was approached to see if I’d be interested in creating a vision for a future airliner I jumped at the chance” adding: “The brief was to create a concept which would be technically possible if we pushed ourselves to the limits, but futuristic enough to inspire. It was delightful to be encouraged to think freely and could only be done with such a visionary client!”

The company stresses that the Bird of Prey should not be seen as a firm Airbus programme, “or even as having an entry-into-service date assigned to it.” Says Greaves: “It may not be real in current Airbus strategy or financial planning but it provides a headmark for future inspirations.”

I'd say that last bit is a huge understatement. This design might be efficient in theory, but it's not likely to be economically producible any time in the near future.
 

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omg :eek:
the Bird of Prey was brought to life by a British superyacht and industrial designer
seems that the H-160 experience hasn't been put in the book yet...



A decade more of this trend at Airbus and that what they will unveil to us (in CGI and with wind brewing EXCLUSIVE propulsion):

Late_521_photo_L'Aerophile_July_1935.jpg
 
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Sigh… they are ridiculing themselves.
“It may not be real in current Airbus strategy or financial planning but it provides a headmark for future inspirations.”
yeah… sure, show a big orange pigeon with the tail feathers painted with unionjack, everyone will take you seriously.
Oh, and call it "Bird of Prey"...
 
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I have been attending annual Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford (home of 422nd a Air Base Squadron, 501st Combat Support Wing USAFE). So was lucky enough on Friday to be invited to the ceremony in the presence of UK Trade Secretary (albeit former Defense Minister) Liam Fox of the unveiling of the Airbus conceptual futuristic airliner - Bird of Prey.

So here are my photos and video

Cheers
 

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I have been attending annual Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford (home of 422nd a Air Base Squadron, 501st Combat Support Wing USAFE). So was lucky enough on Friday to be invited to the ceremony in the presence of UK Trade Secretary (albeit former Defense Minister) Liam Fox of the unveiling of the Airbus conceptual futuristic airliner - Bird of Prey.

So here are my photos and video

Cheers

Looks like only the photo made it.
 
I have been attending annual Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford (home of 422nd a Air Base Squadron, 501st Combat Support Wing USAFE). So was lucky enough on Friday to be invited to the ceremony in the presence of UK Trade Secretary (albeit former Defense Minister) Liam Fox of the unveiling of the Airbus conceptual futuristic airliner - Bird of Prey.

So here are my photos and video

Cheers

Looks like only the photo made it.

My video is too large.

Cheers
 
I can see how a practical aero-engineer might be face-palming over the "Bird of Prey". I do not think that is the purpose of the effort. I showed it to my "twenty-somethings" who really don't give a hoot about airplanes and I got an emphatic "That is cool!" and when I mentioned "green" they were all in, hoping they would get a chance to fly on one. I really think the effort is nothing more than a, as specified, "visioneering project" to get young people interested.
 
As an aerospace engineer I have to say it makes sense from an efficiency viewpoint. It would probably be a manufacturing and structural nightmare, but I can see what they were thinking. You have a low induced-drag wing with advanced bird-inspired wingtips, a turbo-electric high efficiency propulsion system, and an advanced control system that allows them to use the minimum possible flight control surfaces to reduce drag. Will it happen? Probably not, but it makes sense from an aerodynamics POV.
 
I get it that it's meant to be inspiring, but since it's promoting engineering, you might as well at least try to make it plausible.
Not pass an FAA review, just plausible.
Even some of Colani's weirdo stuff was more feasible than this...
Lord, i just now saw the curved gull-wing...what the hell?! o_O
 
I have been attending annual Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford (home of 422nd a Air Base Squadron, 501st Combat Support Wing USAFE). So was lucky enough on Friday to be invited to the ceremony in the presence of UK Trade Secretary (albeit former Defense Minister) Liam Fox of the unveiling of the Airbus conceptual futuristic airliner - Bird of Prey.

So here are my photos and video

Cheers

Make Britain great again! ;) Clearly (aero) engineers and realists are not the target audience for this, its purely inspirational from a visual point of view. So let also an industrial designer have fun once in a while. :)
 

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