"We are not at all at the end of the story," Charles Champion, executive vice president of engineering for Airbus, says. "There's still a great future for aviation."
The commercial aircraft of tomorrow -- or tomorrow's tomorrow -- could be a leisure playground, one in which passengers use virtual reality to sit at a bar or play golf as they sail 30,000 feet above the Earth. Travelers could relax in privacy in seats cocooned from other passengers, blocked from sound and potentially sight from the rest of the cabin.
Charles Champion, executive vice president of engineering for Airbus, and his team of engineers at the French aviation powerhouse have lofty ideas about the future of the industry, a growing one being fueled by the expansion of commercial aviation in Asia. While some, like the virtual reality vision, are upwards of 35 years off, others are already in the development pipeline.
"We are not at all at the end of the story," Champion says. "There's still a great future for aviation."
The commercial aerospace industry is set to soar to new heights during the next few decades on the back of increased air traffic and demand for new aircraft on a global scale. Airbus expects global air traffic to increase 6% by 2031, with airlines taking delivery of 27,350 new commercial aircraft during that time to accommodate the influx of travelers.
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As the price of fuel remains high and global consciousness about eco-alternatives becomes more pronounced, aerospace manufacturers will not only work to develop new cost-effective aircraft but also to bring a slice of the green movement to the blue skies above.
The Future is Now
In many ways, the future of the aerospace industry is sneaking onto commercial aircraft today. Take Airbus' A350 XWB, the in-development wide body plane set to enter service in the latter half of 2014. The A350, like its contemporary, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, is partially comprised of advanced materials (composites), rather than traditional aluminum, making the plane lighter, more fuel efficient and more resistant to corrosion.
"I think the Dreamliner kind of set the stage with more use of advanced composite structures," says Michael Heil, president and CEO of the Ohio Aerospace Institute, who expects composites to become increasingly common on aircraft.
The A350 also employs advancements suggested through biomimicry, or biologically-inspired engineering. The nose of the plane registers wind gusts and adjusts the wings for increased efficiency. This development is modeled after sea birds, which identify wind changes with their beaks and alter the shape of their wings accordingly.
But that's just the beginning.
