Airbus officially opened its new Wing Technology Development Centre (WTDC) on Tuesday. Located at the group’s site at Filton, in England, the new centre will build and test demonstrator wings for a variety of research projects and programmes.

“The new [WTDC] will help us to ground our research in practicality,” explained Airbus Filton site and Wing of Tomorrow Programme head Sue Partridge. “A key element of how we deliver technology for next generation aircraft wings is through Wing of Tomorrow (WoT), our largest research and technology programme led by a team in the UK.”

One of the main opportunities (along with the optimisation of engines) to reduce aircraft fuel consumption, and so carbon emissions, is provided by improving wing design. Wings that are longer, leaner and lighter, yet practical, would achieve such reductions. In so doing, they would help the industry achieve its target of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

WoT permits the group to research new technologies for both the manufacture and assembly of wings. Last week, a second wing demonstrator was completed at the Airbus facility at Broughton, in Wales, and sent to the WTDC. It will now be prepared for structural testing at Airbus’ Aerospace Integrated Research and Technology Centre (AIRTeC), also at Filton.

“It’s about preparing our people, technology, industrial system, supply chain and digital and physical capabilities for next generation aircraft,” she pointed out. “We’re leveraging industry partners and the very best digital tools and automation to identify potential technology bottlenecks that may slow us down in the future. The foundations we lay now will help us build better and faster when the time comes.”

In addition to the WTDC and AIRTeC, Airbus has two other research and development facilities in the UK. These are the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, at Broughton, and the ZEROe Development Centre, again at Filton. Since 2014, the UK public-private Aerospace Technology Institute has awarded Airbus £117-million for WoT-related research.