nry wrote:Airbus aims to produce a composite wing that’s both affordable and capable of a high production rate, according to Sue Partridge, who heads the company’s future-wing project. Assembly of the first demonstrator is set to start in the next few weeks.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ver-boeingMore than a leak - an official statement from someone at Airbus. The NMA battle is heating up.
No actual news in that story or this thread for those who have been following this space.
Airbus has been making "official statements" on this same project since 2015 or so:
https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/news/en ... uture.htmlThis FG article from 2019 says they planned to be making full-scale examples in 2020 so they're actually behind that schedule:
https://www.flightglobal.com/airframers ... 76.articleFolding wing tips were already shown in 2019:

Ref:
https://www.aero-mag.com/airbus-aircraf ... velopments Above article has lots of info if people really want to know what is actually happening.
The Bloomberg article is pretty clearly clickbait. They leverage one insider to give some legitimacy:
Airbus aims to produce a composite wing that’s both affordable and capable of a high production rate, according to Sue Partridge, who heads the company’s future-wing project. Assembly of the first demonstrator is set to start in the next few weeks.
While she declined to discuss specific product plans, a new lightweight wing could be deployed on an upgraded version of the A320 series, allowing Airbus to harvest more efficiencies from its largest existing single-aisle jets. The move would have the benefit of giving Airbus a ready response should arch-rival Boeing Co. choose to go ahead with a new aircraft after its 737 narrow-body reached the limits of development.
... then jump right in to a.net level speculation.
Much later in the article they include a sensible time line:
Airbus’ wing project will be wrapped up in 2023, and the next step will be to sharpen the technology for an eventual product launch, with the timeline depending on the complexity of the aircraft design, said Partridge.
The rest of the article is the same kind of speculation you can read in countless threads here on a.net.
We should all try to guess the a.net userid of "Agency Partners analyst Sash Tusa".
More proof of clickbait is the dog whistle they blew on Brexit:
Though Airbus launched the wing program -- based at its Filton site in England -- in 2015, it has taken on new significance in light of more recent developments. Airbus makes the wings for all its aircraft in the U.K. and flies them by cargo aircraft to the final assembly lines on the continent.
New significance, you say? What could you possibly be referring to? Oh...
Just subtle enough to trigger the readership without being overt about it.
VV wrote:I asked the question because the name cites "Sue Partridge". The name sounds very British.
Try googling her name, her linked-in profile comes up right away.
Sue Partridge - Head of Wing of Tomorrow Programme - Airbus
https://uk.linkedin.com › sue-partridge-75586b54
Bristol, England, United Kingdom · Head of Wing of Tomorrow Programme · Airbus
The FG and aero-mag links above quote her extensively.
Clearly the R&D is being done in the UK. The various articles you get from googling "wing of tomorrow airbus" show the Wales government has invested a lot in composite R&D, but no one knows if issues with "new significance" will be paramount or not.
Oh well, in an hour or so Simply Flying will have an article regurgitating this one, happy days!