becauseitiswhatdrivesthespeedoftheboat.”
Asisthedesignofthehydrodynamicfoilsthat
enable the 14.93 metre catamaran to rise out of the
water and fly above it at speeds up to four times
greaterthanthewind.“Onatraditionalyacht,atspeedsbelow20
knots,theproblemisthedragofthewater,so
aerodynamics are not a concern,” he continues.
“Butwhenyougoto40to45knots,aerodynamic
drag becomes a primary factor.” Hence the
L-shaped form of the foils, which replicate the
upturned tips on the wings of Airbus’s private
and commercial aircraft – the Sharklets, as it
has trademarked them – to improve fuel
consumption and range.
Belleau and I are talking, along with Fabrice
Brégier, president and CEO of Airbus, at Oracle
TeamUSA’sHQinBermuda’shistoricRoyalNaval
Dockyard, overlooking the dazzling turquoise water
oftheGreatSound,whereupto30Airbus
aeronautical engineers have contributed to the
designoftheboatoverthepastthreeyears,a
handfulofthemassignedtotheprojectfull-time.
The collaboration began in 2012 with what
Brégiercalls“low-leveldiscussions”,inwhich
“we compared notes over the technical
convergence between these boats and Airbus
aircraft”, concluding they had much in common.
Invertamodelofanaverageboatand,ifyou
imaginethekeelasatailfin,whatyouhave
isnotsoremovedfromthebodyofaplane.
“Youcanseehowboatsarelookingcloser
andclosertoplanes.”
Aswithaircraft,“thereisaconstantfightin
ordertoreduceweight”,saysBelleau,hencethe
ongoing “quest” to develop lighter and stronger
materialsthatcanbringabout“astepchangein
the continuum”. To this end “the aeronautical
industry really has pushed the use of carbon fibre.“YOU CAN SEE HOW BOATS
ARE LOOKING CLOSER AND
CLOSER TO PLANES”
Fabrice Brégier, president of Airbus >>3D printing enables
Airbus to create
lighter, geometrically
complex components
for boats and planes
in far less time>>>>The A320 and its business jet sibling, the ACJ320,
which were developed in the 1980s and 90s, were
originally 100 per cent aluminium. Now they are
about 60 per cent carbon fibre.” Airbus’s newest
private jet, the fully customisable ACJ350 XWB,
arguably the world’s most modern VIP plane,
which has a range of 10,800nm or 22 hours of flying
time, is 53 per cent carbon fibre. In time this
proportion is likely to approach the AC catamaran’s
72 per cent.
The other game changer has been 3D printing,
which enables Airbus to produce components
of much greater geometrical complexity, yet with
the strength of titanium. “With complex pieces
such as the foils this can save 40 per cent of the
weight,” Belleau says. Each hydrofoil, for example,
weighs 79.83kg and is composed of 16,000 parts
but it has to support the entire 2.4 tonne weight
of the boat when it rises out of the water. It’s also
much faster. “Producing a piece for a rudder or foil
with the traditional means of production might take
about a month, but with 3D printing it takes two
days.” This allows Airbus to be much more
adventurous than it would in the development of
an aircraft, where obviously passenger safety and
longevity are paramount.
Laurent Chatillon is one of the Airbus engineers
who moved out to Bermuda to work on the
project. He believes that, in terms of innovation,
yacht design is lagging “perhaps 30 or 40 years
behind aviation engineering, so the potential for
innovation and synergy is wide open. This is only
the beginning”.
The catamarans that competed for the America’s
Cup last summer were powered by the wind and
the strength of the grinders (or, in Emirates Team
New Zealand’s case, the “cyclors”), who produce
the necessary pressure of 5,000psi to power the
hydraulic systems that operate the wingsail, jib,
foils and rudders. This was equivalent to the same
pounds-per-square-inch pressure as used on an
ACJ350 XWB, so was in effect “transferring Airbus
flight control system knowhow into an AC class
cockpit”. Again, Belleau adds, “this was completely
new for yacht design.”
Take, too, the new generation of pressure
sensors, technology similar to that on the
touchscreen of a smartphone, known as MEMSAbove, top:
L-shaped foils on
boats directly
mirror Sharklets,
as Airbus 320 calls
its upturned wing
tips. Above: Jimmy
Spithill and team
at the 35th
America’s Cup›
PHOTOGRAPHY: ALAMY; GETTY IMAGES; SHUTTERSTOCK; SAM GREENFIELD; LLOYD IMAGES
boatinternational.com
01/2018AVIATION77