The European aircraft manufacturer, Airbus has unveiled a “blended wing body” aircraft, which is being dubbed as the future of aircrafts. Meet MAVERIC (Model Aircraft for Validation and Experimentation of Robust Innovative Controls), which made its debut at the made its debut at the Singapore Airshow 2020. At 2 metres long and 3.2 metres wide, with a surface area of about 2.25m², MAVERIC features a disruptive aircraft design, which has the potential to reduce fuel consumption by up to 20% compared to current single-aisle aircraft. The “blended wing body” configuration also opens up new possibilities for propulsion systems type and integration, as well as a versatile cabin for a totally new on-board passenger experience. The company informed that the project was launched in 2017, and first took to the skies in June 2019. Since then the flight-test campaign has been on-going and will continue until the end of Q2 2020. “Airbus is leveraging emerging technologies to pioneer the future of flight. By testing disruptive aircraft configurations, Airbus is able to evaluate their potential as viable future products,” said Jean-Brice Dumont, EVP Engineering Airbus, stated Airbus. “Although there is no specific time line for entry-into-service, this technological demonstrator could be instrumental in bringing about change in commercial aircraft architectures for an environmentally sustainable future for the aviation industry.” Through AirbusUpNext, a research programme, Airbus is currently working on a number of demonstrator projects in parallel; E-FAN X (hybrid-electric propulsion), fello’fly (v-shaped “formation” flight) and ATTOL (Autonomous Taxi Take-Off & Landing).