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An Air India plane bound for London Gatwick airport shortly after take-off on June 12 in Ahmedabad. Flight AI171 was carrying 242 people, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.

Here, Professor Ali Elham, from the University of Southampton’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, speaks to The Conversation’s Paul Rincon about the plane type involved in the crash, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

How does Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner differ from other passenger planes?

was a huge breakthrough in aircraft design. For example, it was the first Boeing aircraft with more than 50% composite material in its structure. In this case, composite material refers mainly to carbon fibre. This carbon fibre was replacing parts of the structure that would have been made from aluminium in previous types of aircraft. This contributed to a huge reduction in aircraft weight.

There were many innovations in the 787, making it very different from previous iterations of Boeing aircraft, such as the 747 and 767.

The combination of new engines, improved aerodynamics, and significant weight reduction – largely due to the use of composite materials – resulted in notable reductions in both fuel consumption and carbon emissions compared to previous-generation aircraft. Another feature was the greatly increased electrification of the...