Cockroach-like bots, flying taxis are among air show’s tech highlights
LONDON The Farnborough air show, best known as the year’s biggest marketplace for passenger planes, also acts as a test bed for the aviation industry’s wilder imaginings.
Vying for attention with billions of dollars in jetliner deals is a motley of new technologies, many seemingly intent on eliminating the human from the equation. Here are some highlights:
INSECT ENGINEERS
Boffins at U.K. engineering giant Rolls-Royce proudly displayed miniature robots designed to speed up engine overhauls by removing the need for power plants to be detached from the aircraft during shop visits.
Cockroach-like “swarm” bots less than half an inch across will roam the turbine in gangs beaming pictures back to inspection crews after being deposited by so-called “snake” hosts that work their way through the engine.
BLACK SWAN
Farnborough is awash with unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, ranging from delivery craft that gently deposit a parcel by your door to the latest military types intent on blowing stuff up.
The Black Swan from Bulgarian brothers Svilen and Konstantin Rangelov stands out for bringing a touch of eco-cool to the sector. The gasoline-powered model uses a glider-like wing to carry 770-pound payloads for more than 2,400 kilometres and land on the short, unpaved runways common in developing nations.
EMPTY COCKPIT
The industry is forging ahead with plans for the pilotless plane. Experts will tell you it’s easier to fully automate an aircraft than a car, but companies are hedging their bets and developing freight variants before trying to persuade passengers of that argument.
Boeing indicated that unmanned cargo craft will be a priority for NeXt, a new organization formed to develop disruptive products. On show was a rotorcraft model the firm says could be buzzing over cities within years — not decades.
TAXI FOR ... EVERYONE
It was hard to find a major aerospace manufacturer that wasn’t touting a flying cab. Airbus and Boeing already have well-advanced plans but Rolls-Royce crashed the party with a plan to leverage vertical-thrust technology that dates back to the original Harrier jumpjet and the “flying bedstead” that wowed crowds in 1950s.
Luxury carmaker Aston Martin sought to get in on the act with a three-seat, hybrid-electric, vertical aircraft that it hopes might appeal to the next generation of millionaire enthusiasts. Aston said it will team up with Rolls (of jet-engine fame, not Aston’s carmaking rival) and experts from Britain’s Cranfield aeronautics university to get the project off the ground.
SPEED FREAKS
The race is heating up between three companies seeking to channel the spirit of Concorde and reverse the untimely demise of supersonic passenger travel.
Texas-based Aerion is pitching an eight-to-12-passenger model that’s essentially a faster (Mach 1.4) version of today’s business jets. Boom Technology of Denver is pushing a jetliner-sized, deltawinged 55-seater it says would reach Mach 2.2. Spike Aerospace of Boston is targeting a Mach 1.6 plane sized somewhere between the other two.
Boom has signed up airline customers but delayed the flight of a prototype by a year, while Spike’s demonstrator model is subsonic. Aerion reckons it’s further down the line, having secured an engine partnership with General Electric and an accord that could see Lockheed Martin build its plane.
PLASTIC FANTASTIC
The show’s biggest splash came in the military sector, with the U.K. unveiling the Tempest fighter mock-up developed by BAE Systems and partners.
Defence experts lined up to suggest the program will be merged with one underway across the English Channel once the Brexit dust has settled. But the plane certainly looked the part — a large, twin-engined design resembling Lockheed Martin’s F-22. The jet could be manned or unmanned and would operate with a squadron of drone wingmen.