British Industry Minister Nusrat Ghani inaugurated a wing technology plant in southwest England on Tuesday to help design and build wings that are longer, lighter, more slender and feature folding wingtips to fly more sustainably. Industry sources estimate Airbus is spending in the "high hundreds of millions" of dollars on Wing of Tomorrow. Partridge said Airbus was in talks with at least three suppliers to lower costs and weave parts more efficiently. That means we need to increase the span of the wing," Partridge said. Industry sources say Airbus could tap part of the research if it moves ahead with a potential stretch of the smaller A220.

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Persons: Nusrat Ghani, Sue Partridge, Partridge, Joanna Plucinska, Tim Hepher, Mark Potter Organizations: Airbus, British Industry, Boeing, Concorde, Thomson Locations: FILTON, England, Filton, Paris