Smarter skies?

Airbus’s Charles Champion on the future of flying

“Technology can do anything – but it can’t do everything. ” Those were the opening words from Charles Champion, executive vice president engineering at Airbus, who delivered the 54th Sir Charles Kingsford Smith Memorial Lecture in Sydney in September.

“Our engineers are continuously encouraged to think widely and come up with ‘disruptive’ ideas which will assist our industry in meeting the 2050 [environmental] targets we have signed up to.