In Short : Airbus, a leading aerospace company, is charting a course toward achieving net-zero emissions in the UK aviation sector. The company is pioneering initiatives aimed at reducing the environmental impact of air travel. By investing in research and development of sustainable aviation technologies, embracing alternative fuels, and enhancing the efficiency of aircraft designs, Airbus is actively working to mitigate the carbon footprint of the aviation industry. These efforts align with the global push toward sustainable aviation, aiming to balance the growth of air travel with the urgent need to combat climate change. Through innovation and collaboration, Airbus is leading the way toward a more sustainable future for the aerospace industry.
In Detail : On the edge of Airbus’s sprawling wing-making factory in Broughton, north Wales, engineers are working in a smaller, nondescript building on a project that is key to the pan-European aircraft maker’s long-term future.
Here at AMRC Cymru, an offshoot of the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, the third and final full-size prototype of a new wing design — longer and thinner than the ones used on the current generation of airliners — is taking shape.
It is part of a wider research initiative to design more fuel-efficient aircraft to help achieve the global aviation industry’s highly ambitious aim to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Aviation is on a “bit of a precipice” in terms of the transition to net zero, said Ben Morgan, research director of the AMRC. While it is a “huge opportunity . . . [it is] also a big risk”.
At stake is not just Airbus’s long-term future but that of the wider UK civil aircraft industry, which accounted for about two-thirds of the aerospace sector’s £27bn turnover from commercial and military programmes last year and a similar proportion of the 108,000 highly skilled workforce.
Unlike other parts of the UK manufacturing base — hamstrung by the government’s failure to produce a coherent industrial strategy — aerospace has, on the whole, benefited from long-term state support for research and development.
Industry executives credit initiatives such as the Aerospace Technology Institute, the body that allocates government funding for innovation in the civil aviation sector, for underpinning research into areas such as lightweight materials, wing technology and hydrogen propulsion.
The ATI helped fund the three prototype wings made at Broughton, a globally significant industrial centre that makes the wings for all but the smallest Airbus aircraft, including the best-selling A320 airliner.
The prototypes will be used at Airbus’s development centre in Filton, near Bristol, to test new technologies and the industrial system needed to build them at speed and scale for the next-generation airliner, which could enter service in the late 2030s, although Airbus has not yet made any commitment.
“We are future-proofing wing manufacture in the UK,” said Paul McKinlay, UK head of manufacturing at Airbus.
Since its launch in 2013, the ATI has helped fund £3.58bn in research alongside industry. Last year, ministers authorised a further three-year £685mn state funding package, ending a 12-month moratorium on new applications for grants, which executives had warned risked cutting-edge R&D work going overseas.