Airbus has lifted the curtain just a tad and given us a glimpse at the future of commercial aviation. At the Airbus Summit 2025 in Toulouse, the company presented a view of the technology that will create the single-aisle airliner of tomorrow.
Bumble bees are actually inspiring wing designs now. For a long time our best theories on aerodynamics couldn’t explain how Bumblebees could fly. Given the relative mass and wing size the bumble bee they couldn’t explain how a bumble bee could fly.
In the last decade or so they figured it out after putting enough bumble bees into wind tunnels. Bumblebees generate additional lift by creating little vortexes in the air. So now wing designers are trying to incorporate that effect into their designs.
Wait, so what has been inspiring wings up to this?
Bumble bees.
Bumble bees are actually inspiring wing designs now. For a long time our best theories on aerodynamics couldn’t explain how Bumblebees could fly. Given the relative mass and wing size the bumble bee they couldn’t explain how a bumble bee could fly.
In the last decade or so they figured it out after putting enough bumble bees into wind tunnels. Bumblebees generate additional lift by creating little vortexes in the air. So now wing designers are trying to incorporate that effect into their designs.