The 787 seems to be the earliest comparably capable design. Going by a NASA report neither the 777 wing nor the 737NG wing reach the aerodynamic achievements of the airbus products.
The A340/A330 wing predates the 777 by a couple of years ( mid 80ties to early 90ties.). ( no thrust gate or similar discontinuities.) It’s amazing how well they did with the A320 wing design, which imho ranks up there with the 787 one as among the greatest of the past 40 years.Ī progression of improved supercritical designs starting with the first A300 wing progressing quite a bit with the A310 wing.Īnd a drive towards clean wings with closed flaplines. The next generation were essentially a half generation after the 777. Their first designs/widebodies (A300/A310) weren’t really heavy for the time light twins, for relatively shorter routes.
Seems like with the exception of the A321, Airbus has preferred the single slotted flaps from the start for all their planes?
