Airbus said it will fit extensions of about four or five metres to the wings of one of its A321neo planes to test how different shapes cope in real-world conditions in the second half of next year. The model is part of the A320 family of aircraft, the bestselling model of all time.<\/p>\n
The European manufacturer and its bitter US rival Boeing are gearing up to make the next generation of planes after decades of selling their respective A320 and 737 models. Both companies are looking at technologies<\/a> that they hope will significantly cut down energy usage, including new engines, hybrid electric systems and longer wings.<\/p>\n Airbus is about to start the assembly of the wing extension in its factory in Broughton, north Wales<\/a>. However, its first phase of tests will only include the bolts that will fix it in place and not yet the hinges that will allow it to fold up.<\/p>\n The company has said it will decide on the shape of its new aircraft by 2030. Partridge said Airbus already knows that the next generation will use relatively heavy engines with a large diameter and that the wings will be bent like a gull\u2019s for extra aerodynamic benefit.<\/p>\n Airbus and Boeing will also have to choose new engines. Airbus is considering whether to go with covered engines that encase the fan blades, or an \u201copen fan\u201d option with the blades exposed<\/a>.<\/p>\n The British manufacturer Rolls-Royce is hoping to break into the market for higher-selling single-aisle planes<\/a>, also known as narrowbodies, when Airbus and Boeing make their next generation. The Rolls-Royce chief executive, Tufan Erginbilgi\u00e7, on Tuesday told reporters at Farnborough that the company had only two years to persuade the plane manufacturers to choose its engines.<\/p>\n He urged the UK government under its new prime minister, Andy Burnham, to back the company\u2019s investments in its UltraFan engine programme. The new chancellor, John Healey, was previously the defence secretary and so \u201cunderstands Rolls-Royce and our agenda\u201d, Erginbilgi\u00e7 added. However, the plea for subsidy from the highly profitable manufacturer will have to be weighed against Burnham\u2019s other spending priorities such as social care<\/a> and ending rough sleeping<\/a>.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Rolls-Royce is developing two variants of its UltraFan engine<\/a> \u2013 one for larger, widebody jets and another narrowbody version. Erginbilgi\u00e7 said it was worth supporting<\/a> because it was the \u201csingle biggest opportunity for the next 50 years\u201d for economic growth for the UK, and that it would \u201ctransform advanced manufacturing\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would like to do it in the UK because it is our origin,\u201d Erginbilgi\u00e7 said. \u201cBut we have other options.\u201d<\/p>\n Kevin Craven, the chief executive of ADS Group, a lobby group for the British aerospace and defence industry, said the UK government should \u201cfocus on the champions for UK aerospace\u201d in trying to win \u201cprobably the most consequential decision in our industry\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airbus has said it will test folding wings for the next generation of its bestselling planes, as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-703881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n