more on aircraft weight from that link
Every 25 pounds we remove, we save $440,000 a year," McGraw said.
that is $17,600 saved per year per pound for one smallish airline Northwestern. For a 10 year aircraft life (most are used longer) engineering in only one pound of weight savings in something as simple as a bracket saves $ 176,000 . Northwestern has 320 aircraft, American Airlines has 3 times as many…
That makes a big selling point for aircraft manufacturers. Because they can save thousands of pounds with 3DP of some parts, especially with titanium… It can save on part production cost too because of less material wastage . Jet aircraft design improvements are incremental and progressively more sophisticated and expensive as they stretch the design envelope. Weight of the airframe is a big part of that.In fact engine design and weight are the only two good prospects- aerodynamics has mostly been worked out.
In the next generation expect more 3DP titanium parts . Because that is the only way to substantially reduce the metal weight of load bearing items. Just things like brackets and landing gear components are huge opportunities.Probably more carbon fiber too but I don’t have a good investment for that , it seems non proprietary.