It has been a busy week here at the Architectural Centre website, but I couldn’t not post this one – so here is a little something for your Friday afternoon entertainment:

Sweet! 

The ‘flight manual’ is here: Airbus-The-future-by-Airbus-June-2011.pdf, where you can learn about the ‘future materials’ and technology, use of biomimicry, and so on and so forth. Although highly speculative (it has the nature of a student project), there must be some inspiration there for other, perhaps less mobile, built environments…?

Some parts are slightly more alarming than others though:

Empennage: The empennage (tail section of the aircraft) is U-shaped, acting as a shield to reduce external noise pollution. The concept plane does not use a vertical tail, as seen on the planes of today. Vertical tails are required when engines are installed on the wings as they provide directional stability in case of engine failure. The engines of the future will have no risk of failure, eliminating the need for a vertical tail.