The wing master: Bombardier's award-winning aerodynamic production

It’s almost a cliché to say that commercial aircraft don’t look much different now than they did two decades ago. But get below the skin and they have changed beyond all recognition. And little demonstrates this better than the wings of the Airbus A220, the small airliner that began its existence as the Bombardier C series. Although outwardly there is little to distinguish them from the wings of any other small airliner, they are so radically different from conventional wings they required the adoption of an entirely new design and manufacturing philosophy and the construction of a purpose-built factory at Bombardier’s historic Belfast site.

It was these radical differences that led to the wing being selected as the winner of the 2019 MacRobert Award, the highest honour awarded to an engineering project by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Previous winners include the Pegasus jet engine that powered the Harrier, catalytic converters and intelligent prosthetic limbs, putting the wing into rarefied company.