FILTON, England, July 4 Reuters Airbus is stepping up testing of radical new wing technology as the planemaker lays the foundation for a future successor to its bestselling A320 series, but faces a battle to bring down costs.

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.

It39;s our programme to prepare technologies we are going to need for the next generation of Airbus aircraft, whatever that is, Sue Partridge, head of the company39;s Wing of Tomorrow programme, told reporters.

The opening comes as Boeing researches an elongated, ultralight concept called Transonic TrussBraced Wings.

The choice of wing design and production methods by either manufacturer, together with engine developments, will shape aircraft competition well into the second half of the century.

Industry sources estimate Airbus is spending in the high hundreds of millions of dollars on Wing of Tomorrow.

Officially, the research could benefit any project, but all eyes are on a successor to the singleaisle A320, which Airbus has said could be introduced between 2035 and 2040.

This is about getting technology ready for a future single aisle product, so a high productionrate product, Partridge said of a set of demonstrator models.

We need to develop composite technologies to get weight out of the wing, but they need…