Airbus UpNext
Airbus UpNext focuses on flying future technologies at speeds well beyond what seems feasible today. In doing so, it is actively shaping the future of the aerospace industry.
Mission
Airbus UpNext’s demonstrators evaluate, mature and validate potential new products and services that encompass radical technological breakthroughs. It has three flagships locations in France, Germany and Spain, to rapidly develop and test future technologies in scaled applications.
Its mission is:
- To identify trends and technology concepts disrupting the future of aerospace - from both inside and external to Airbus - and evaluate them as potential viable products.
- To further accelerate traditional research cycles, developing proof of concepts and completing both ground and flight testing with scale and speed. Each demonstrator takes on the challenge to deliver critical learning within a two to three year time frame, engaging our people and partners with purpose.
- To develop real-world applications for emerging aerospace technologies, thereby driving maturation and value.
People
The people at Airbus UpNext keep one foot in the present and one foot in the future. They are solution-oriented, value-driven and come from different backgrounds and sectors. With a hands-on approach to bringing future technologies to life today, the people working at Airbus UpNext deliver value-add aerospace innovation by staying one step ahead.
The teams are 100% dedicated to the project they are working on while having opportunities to contribute and apply their savoir-faire to other areas across the organisation. In doing so they positively contribute to the Airbus innovation ecosystem, delivering innovations with meaningful value.
Current projects
Auto’Mate
This demonstrator develops, adapts and evaluates technologies enabling autonomous air-to-air refuelling in formation flight operations. It will consist of in-flight testing of the key technologies - focusing on three technological bricks that are accurate relative navigation, in-flight communication and cooperative control algorithm - in order to pave the way to a future autonomous air-to-air refuelling product.
Blue Condor
This demonstrator is taking a modified glider up to 33,000 feet – an extreme altitude for an aircraft that normally cruises below 10,000 feet – to analyse hydrogen combustion’s impact on contrail properties. The result of this analysis will provide critical information on aviation’s non-CO2 emissions, including contrails and NOx, in advance of the hydrogen-powered ZEROe demonstrator flight testing.
eXtra Performance Wing
This demonstrator project focused on accelerating and validating technologies that will improve and optimise wing aerodynamics and performance for any future aircraft. Its applications would be compatible with any propulsion solution and aircraft configuration and would reduce CO₂ emissions, contributing to Airbus’ decarbonisation roadmap.
VERTEX
This project demonstrates simplified mission preparation and control for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, reducing pilot workload using intuitive devices on the Airbus HelicoptersFlightlab.
Latest news
eXtra Performance Wing demonstrator takes off
Success stories
DragonFly
Airbus UpNext DragonFly is a demonstrator that is exploring new pilot assistance technologies to further enhance flight safety and aircraft operational efficiency. The technologies being designed, developed and tested enable an aircraft to identify features in the landscape so that it can “see” and safely manoeuvre within its surroundings, these include and are to be applied to automated emergency operations (diversion) in cruise as well as automatic landing whatever the weather conditions and on ground taxi assistance.
TELEO
This programme demonstrated the potential to boost ground-to-space communication data rates through ultra-high-throughput optical links. Read here more information on Arabsat Badr-8 succesfully launched.
Discover our Innovation Ecosystem at Airbus
