Airbus A350

Singapore Airlines joins chorus for A350 redesign
Tuesday April 11, 2006

The factions within Airbus that are pushing for a redesign of the A350 gained another ally in Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng.

Last month, ILFC Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy, whose company ordered 12 A350s in November, stunned the aviation world when he called on Airbus to abandon its A350 design (ATWOnline, March 30), based in large part on the A330, and build an all-new aircraft with a new fuselage and wing to compete with the clean-sheet 787.

In Europe for a Star Alliance meeting, Chew told media that Airbus should have "designed a new fuselage" for the A350. However, an SIA spokesperson told ATWOnline that the airframer is "not out of the running just yet." The carrier's board is expected to decide between the 787-9 and A350 at its May 9 meeting and the spokesperson said, "there's still a way to go and Airbus and Boeing have about a month to sharpen their offerings."

Any A350 redesign would cost critical time and alter the pricing significantly. Analysts are suggesting it would take Airbus a year to complete a detailed redesign and issue meaningful guarantees.

But the comments from Chew, one of the world's most influential airline executives, should hit home. It was SIA's cancellation of its order for 20 MD-11s in the early 1990s over problems with range that was the death knell for that airplane.

[...]

by Geoffrey Thomas

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Airline criticism of Airbus A350 forces airframer to make radical changes to fuselage, wing and engines
By Guy Norris in Los Angeles

Airbus is working on a dramatic redesign of its planned A350 long-range widebody twin that is aimed at an all-new aircraft family capable of leapfrogging the rival Boeing 787 as well as the 777, Flight International reveals in this week’s issue.

Airbus went back to the drawing board on the A350 after vocal criticism from key customers such as International Lease Finance, and is expected to reveal details of the initiative in July.

The new family is expected to comprise three versions, the A350-800, -900 and -1000. Key design changes from the earlier A350 include a wider fuselage cross-section, larger all-composite wing, higher Mach 0.85 cruise speed and more powerful engines in the 85,000-90,000lb (380-400kN) thrust class.

The -800 is aimed at the 787-3/8/9 and will continue to be billed as Airbus’s A330-200 replacement. The -900 is similarly aimed at the 777-200ER and 787-10, while the -1000, with seating for around 350, will for the first time give Airbus a very large twin with the range and similar payload capability of the 777-300ER.

Flight International understands Airbus internal planning documents claim new technology engines and lighter structural weight will enable it to achieve up to 20% lower fuel burn than the 777-300ER. The adoption of the new cross-section, the first change for any new Airbus single-deck widebody since the original A300 design of the late-1960s, is particularly significant.

The new fuselage, although close to the 777 diameter with the addition of around 500mm (19in), is expected to retain the same materials technology as the original A350. The move to the larger twin concept also means the formal abandonment of Airbus’s fundamental belief in its long-range four-engined policy.

It is understood that the common cross-section is likely to be adopted over an alternative study that favoured retaining the original diameter for the smaller -800/900 and increasing it for the -1000.

While dramatically enhancing the product’s overall competitiveness against both the 777 and 787 families, it will also inevitably delay the development schedule. Under the original A350 plan, Airbus expected to put the first aircraft into service in late 2010. Under the revised schedule, first delivery is expected to be no earlier than 2012.

The new plan would call for the introduction of the -900 first, with the -800 following and the -1000 coming last in late 2013 or early 2014. The move is also pivotal on the engine makers which, in the case of General Electric and Rolls-Royce, were already well-advanced on powerplants. The thrust requirement is now well above the mid-70,000lb level originally expected.

One option would be to retain the existing GEnx-1A72 and Trent 1700 engines for the new A350-800/900 – taking advantage of integration work already completed – and develop modified, higher-thrust derivatives for the -1000. Another would be to develop new baseline engines in the 90,000lb-thrust class and derate them for the smaller models.

The engine requirement for the revamped A350 has also attracted the attention of the GE Pratt & Whitney Engine Alliance (see related story).

Airbus says: “There has definitely been no decision on the A350 taken yet. We have an A350 already which has been successful in the marketplace. We are talking to customers to see if we should do any optimisation. When we have a clearer picture we will take an internal decision on this.”

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GE/Pratt & Whitney Engine Alliance makes bid to power revamped Airbus A350
By Guy Norris in Los Angeles

Engine Alliance, a General Electric and Pratt & Whitney joint venture, is studying the revamped Airbus A350’s increased thrust requirement. A GP7000 technical team is to meet Airbus “to understand its requirements”, says P&W Large Commercial Engines president Steve Heath.

“I see no reason why we couldn’t take the technology of our partner GE and combine that with our low-pressure spool and end up with an extremely competitive product that could power the A380 growth and, at the same time, apply to the A350 line,” says Heath. He adds that “P&W and GE are talking to each other about this, and we’re promoting it through the Engine Alliance”. He believes the GP7000 approach will also be the most cost-effective solution. “We’ve dumped around $1 billion into the GP7000 and GE has put as much again into the GEnx. At some point common sense has to prevail.”

He believes the European Union competition ruling on the GP7000, which restricts its use to quad designs, can be overcome. “I don’t see why an engine on the A380 can’t be used to the potential advantage of the Airbus family. I don’t know why the EU would object.”

Separately, GE is thought to be studying solutions, including a potential GE90-sized engine with GEnx technology. Rolls-Royce is likely to look at a new Trent variant embracing 800 and 1000/1700 technology. GE says it “has agreements to power more than 100 A350s with the GEnx”. R-R says it holds regular talks with Airbus and Boeing on their “future requirements”.

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Airbus settling on wider fuselage, composite wing as it nears A350 revamp decision
Tuesday May 9, 2006

Stung by vocal criticism of its A350 offering from ILFC, Emirates and Singapore Airlines, Airbus is close to announcing a radical revamp of the aircraft, according to insiders in Toulouse.CEO Gustav Humbert told reporters two weeks ago that the airframer would make some sort of decision by summer (ATWOnline, April 26).

Airbus is striving to match Boeing's 787 and 777 while addressing Emirates' disappointment in the A340-600IGW's performance (ATWOnline, March 13). Key to the new variant is a wider Al-Li fuselage, up to 14 in. wider than the current A350, to accommodate a true nine-abreast configuration. The redesign comes after Emirates shipped a row of its triple seats to Toulouse where they did not fit into the A350 mockup. Boeing is offering the 787 in both eight- and nine-abreast arrangements.

The revised A350 also will feature a larger, all-new composite wing but not a composite fuselage. There will be three models. The first two will be similar to the existing A350-800 and dash 900. The third will be dubbed the dash 1000 and will seat up to 350, putting it head-to-head with the 777-300ER.

The revamped design's entry into service now is supposed to slip into the second half of 2012, but insiders at Emirates told ATWOnline they are skeptical of that date. There is some possibility that Airbus may stick with the current A350-800 design so as to meet orders on hand, but the majority view in Toulouse is to scrap it.

There also is some thought that the A350-1000, which requires a 100,000-lb.-thrust engine, could be a quadjet if a suitable engine isn't available. Production of the new model apparently is slated for Hamburg rather than Toulouse.

Analysts suggest that while the revised A350 will be more competitive, the reluctance to tackle a composite fuselage leaves Airbus exposed.

Singapore Airlines was expected to announce a comprehensive fleet buy at its May 9 board meeting but may well delay the expected order for 787s until Airbus has a chance to firm up its business plan. SIA is expected to order 777-200LRs to replace its A340-500s and also may order 747-8Fs.

by Geoffrey Thomas

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Airbus chief admits to mistakes over new A350 model

BERLIN (AFP) - The planemaker Airbus has made mistakes in its thinking on development of a model to compete with Boeing's new plane the 787, a chief executive of the European consortium admitted.
In an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, made available in advance, Germany's Thomas Enders said Airbus had under-estimated the Boeing 787.

"That's why we needed some time to come up with a competitive aircraft," said Enders, co-chairman of the European Aerospace, Defence and Space (EADS) company which owns Airbus together with British defence group BAE Systems.

"We've made mistakes. But we have put this behind us," he said. The company reckoned with sales of 200 of the projected new twin-engined A350 model, which has come under criticism from potential customers.

The European company has received 100 firm orders for the A350 against 345 orders for the fuel-efficient 787, launched in 2004.

Two Airbus customers, the US leaser ILFC and Singapore Airlines, have publicly criticised the A350, suggesting it needed a completely new fuselage.

Enders answered critics by saying Airbus was just starting to develop the A350 and was open to any ideas to ensure it went into service as scheduled by 2010.

Enders has been joint president of EADS since last year together with France's Noel Forgeard.

Last Thursday, sources at the Airbus plant at Toulouse in southern France said the board of EADS was likely to opt this month to develop the A350 as a new plane with an enlarged fuselage and new wings.

Such a decision would delay the first delivery date by a year and could double the development costs, currently estimated at four billion dollars, the source said.

Other sources spoke of a two-year delay and said the changes would amount to a major revamp of the A350 plans, rather than the development of an entirely different aircraft, with a bigger capacity, redesigned wings and fuel economies.

The planned A350 is itself a revamp of the 300-seat Airbus A330.

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