Golden eagle: Airbus's bird-wing design has been ruffling feathers. Photo / Supplied, Airbus
Golden eagle: Airbus's bird-wing design has been ruffling feathers. Photo / Supplied, Airbus
The spread wingtips and tapered tail of Airbus's "bird of prey" design the has gained "rapturous" praise at the Royal International Air Tattoo in the UK.
While the eagle-like aircraft might never take off, it's hoping the striking design might launch the careers of future aeronautical engineers.
Speaking to The Times, UK trade secretary Liam Fox praised the design as an "exciting glimpse into the future of the sector."
The wings and tail closely mimic those of an eagle. The European plane designer Airbus says that it has looked to nature to for lessons in design and efficiency.
Next generation: The biology-inspired, hybrid-electric, turbo-propeller aircraft from Airbus. Photo / Supplied, Airbus
Apart from the avian-inspired form, the choice of rotor blades over jet-engines is another design decision that has been turning heads.
Senior manager, Martin Aston told The Times this launch was more about inspiring "wow" factor in the youth considering a career in aerospace.
"One of the priorities for the entire industry is how to make aviation more sustainable — making flying cleaner, greener and quieter than ever before.
"We know from our work on the Airbus A350 passenger jet that biomimicry, literally learning from the genetics of animals, that nature has some of the best lessons we can learn about design."
Will it ever work? Who knows? But there are plenty of other areas in travel which have looked to nature for inspiration.
After all, with just 115 years since Orville and Wilbur Wright first got airborne, Humans are newcomers to the game.
Life on earth has been perfecting powered flight for 230 million years.
Other transport lessons learned from the natural world
In 1989 the Japanese bullet train project started bird watching to solve a couple of tough design problems facing the Shinkansen ultra-high speed train.
Different birds were observed as an inspiration for different aspects of design, according to an article by Kurt Kohlsted for the design website 99 Per-cent Invisible.
Bird on the rails: Shinkansen 'bullet trains' at Tokyo Station, Japan. Photo by Iain Masterton, Getty Images
Owls' wings and the bodies of streamlined penguins were studied by amateur twitcher and professional engineer Eiji Nakatsu, to help give his team guidance.
Perhaps the most obvious piece of 'Biomimicry' that came from the project are the trains' "beaked" carriages.
The ridiculous-looking but highly functional duck-billed and bird-like babins are modelled after shape of diving birds' beaks to reduce friction in tunnels.
Kookaburra and kingfisher were the desing inspiration behind Japan's bullet trains. Photo / Getty Images
While Airbus's eagle design might never take off, in Japan bird inspired bullet trains now carry 160 million passengers a year.
Looking to the skies for inspiration might not be such a feather-brained idea, after all.
