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July 24th, 2019 : Bird of Prey
This is a design that elicits a WTF are you shittin’ me?
Then I see it’s a prop job and electric, and it’s just a drawing not a blueprint so it’s just suggesting an odd shaped wing that
would be much sturdier. But it’s “dumb old Airbus”* so maybe they really believe it.
*Inside joke, I retired from Boeing.
Dezeen said...
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Airbus has unveiled a bird-like concept for a hybrid-electric airliner that aims to show the potential of using biomimicry in aviation design. Inspired by the "efficient mechanics" of birds, Airbus' Bird of Prey conceptual aircraft features wing and tail structures with individually controlled feather-like tips, which help with control while minimising drag. The concept also boasts a smooth wing root – the point where the wing joins the fuselage – designed to imitate the graceful, aerodynamic arch of an eagle or falcon. The feathered tips of the plane's tail are decorated with the pattern of a union jack, which contrasts with its orange body and more subtly coloured blue, white and gold wings. While not intended to represent an actual aircraft, the Bird of Prey concept is based on realistic ideas. Its designers are aiming to provide an insight into what the future of aviation could look like if designers harnessed the potential of biomimicry – design inspired by nature. |
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"Our Bird of Prey is designed to be an inspiration to young people and create a 'wow' factor that will help them consider an exciting career in the crucially important aerospace sector," said Martin Aston, a senior manager at Airbus. "One of the priorities for the entire industry is how to make aviation more sustainable – making flying cleaner, greener and quieter than ever before," he continued. "We know from our work on the A350 XWB passenger jet that through biomimicry, nature has some of the best lessons we can learn about design," added Aston. |
This may be a inspirational ploy by AIRBUS, but there’s plenty of strange things going on up in the air from the people hooked on
images of the Jetsons and Star Trek dancing in their head.
Uber seems to want to burn through more billions than they lose every year already.
Diaphone Jim Wednesday Jul 24 12:31 PM
Self-flying and Uber's "plans" among some others are just fantasies and delusional.
Using biological input makes sense, but it should be kept in mind that birds worked on it for millions of years.
Happy Monkey Wednesday Jul 24 03:09 PM
Copying birds directly is problematic because fixed-wing with engines is much more efficient in most ways and cases, and bird wings are designed for maneuvering using wing position. And even if flapping were better, we don't have something equivalent to muscles in strength and weight at the scale of an airplane.
But self-flying is probably a much easier problem than self-driving, as you don't have to differentiate detected objects into obstacles and "just part of the road", routing is much easier, landing sites are well-defined, deconfliction of routes is well-defined and has more options, and the sheer variety and number of potential obstacles is much less.
But yes, any plans that rely on doing it at a profit in the short term are very probably doomed.
xoxoxoBruce Wednesday Jul 24 11:41 PM
Bird wings don't do the same things as plane wings, they're more articulated.
Someone in the comments pointed out the Albatross has the best bird glide ratio at 22 to 1, whereas the gliders we discussed recently hit 70 to 1.
Gotta admit they taste better though.
BigV Thursday Jul 25 12:04 AM
ORLY
curious, how many gliders have you eaten?
for that matter, how many albratrossi have you eaten?
hmmmm????/
xoxoxoBruce Thursday Jul 25 12:13 AM
The bird lost the contest so logicly I was awarding it the consolation prize.
If you have to eat an Albatross to know it tastes better than an airplane then your culinary distress requires professional intervention to teach you to think like a logical adult rather than an emotional child. 
Diaphone Jim Thursday Jul 25 04:08 PM
After you kill an albatross, don't you have to hang around your neck for like months before you eat it?
xoxoxoBruce Friday Jul 26 12:29 AM
Not me, the only bird I'm hanging around my neck is British.
Hopalong48 Saturday Jul 27 02:48 PM
I just want a jetpack, dammit they promised.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
xoxoxoBruce Saturday Jul 27 03:58 PM
I heard that guy who was buzzing over Paris the other day fell in the Channel.
Happy Monkey Sunday Jul 28 03:34 PM
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