Airbus Files Trijet Patent

Airbus filed a patent application for a commercial trijet aircraft, bringing back all those fond feelings from Boeing's 727, McDonnell Douglas' DC-10, and Lockheed's L1011 -- otherwise known as the ghosts of trijet past. Though some of the above aircraft still operate, airline manufacturers have not designed a trijet in over 20 years due to the increased power, reliability, and efficiency of turbofan engines.

The patent was filed on March 27 and it shows (as you can see above) a new trijet design featuring that distinctive (and not very pretty) noise shielding tail structure. Noise was another reason the trijet faded away, that engine mounted over the rear of the aircraft made the aft passenger cabin rather noisy. Also, the third engine was just another gas guzzler at the time. Airbus seems to think that because they will be able to use three smaller engines as opposed to two larger engines, it will have a competitive fuel burn with any modern two engine aircraft.

Don't go thinking that Airbus will be rolling out the A370 tomorrow or anything, as patents are usually filed to protect a company's engineering designs that may or may not ever take shape in the real world.

Image: Flightglobal

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