Blade prototype A340 first flight today
 

With laminar profiles on both sides, a little bit more than the wing tips...

Good to see new projects taking off from time to time, with real research, something else than new software :

Le démonstrateur Blade a fait son premier vol - Air&Cosmos

Airbus press release (in English):
Airbus’ “BLADE” laminar flow wing demonstrator makes first flight

Thanks Old chap, I agree it reads better this way on pprune

Not entirely clear if its the same outer wing on both sides, or two different ones?

EU funded?
Surely this is the sort of thing every airfare manufacturer is doing anyway? Looks like another ECO scam to me.

MFS, “same on each side”; not necessarily so.

http://cleansky.eu/sites/default/fil...%20project.pdf

Airbus to test New Laminar Wing on the A340

according to their slide, it appears there is a bit of a mod to one side vs the other...2 upper cover options, one has a continuous surface, the other has a joint...

SAAB manufactured one, GKN manufactured the other.

Looks like there is a mod to the tail section as well..

https://i.imgur.com/UKk3lxm.jpg

I am scratching my head a bit on the Port/Starboard labels on the diagram....

great location for a folding wing if one so desires!

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Airbu...-311/4605253/L

Link to first flight pic

It's part of the Banal Acronym Démonstrateur project.

Looks like someone's bolted a c310 wing on the end.

My understanding (open to comment): both experimental wings have the same airfoil, but built different ways (with/without joint behind leading edge).

Test flights will determine if the jointed version is smooth enough to produce the same laminar flow.

I'm assuming the different construction methods have implications for manufacturing cost, maintenance cost, and of course performance.

The pods at the root and tip of the test wings carry observational/test equipment - they would not exist on production wings.

I do hope they test the effect of ice, bugs, salt and the like on these wings. Years ago I flew some marvellous gliders with really fantastic laminar flow wings. You could actually see and feel the performance gain. But the moment a few bugs stuck to the leading edge you fell out if the sky.

Boeing use a suck/blow technique in their laminar flow control system on the 787-9.
It's only on the tail surfaces but there doesn't seem to be any problems so far.
Works well, lasts a long time.

Yes, per the diagram in Post #7, there are 2 cover options. Probably a bit easier to manufacture in sections rather than a continuous piece.