AIRCRAFT
The Airbus A318, also known as the "Mini-Airbus" or the "baby 'bus," is Airbus' smallest airliner and odd looking, designed to serve high-frequency low-density routes. It has a passenger capacity of 109 in a two-class configuration, and is intended to replace early Boeing 737 and Douglas DC-9 models, though it is also a rival to the New Generation 737-600. Additionally, Boeing offered their 717 aircraft as a competitor, but it was suitable primarily for regional routes and did not have the A318's range capabilities.Airbus now offers a family of aircraft at logically spaced intervals from 109 to 185 seats. All members of the range, the 109-seat A318, the 124-seat A319, the 150-seat A320 and the 185-seat A321 are derived from the same basic structure.
The A318 flew for the first time on January 15, 2002, from Airbus' Hamburg plant in Germany. The flight lasted 3 hours 44 minutes. The takeoff weight was 57.5 tonnes (126,800 lbs). Around 7 tonnes (15,400 lbs) of flight-test instrumentation along with 94 km (59 miles) of electrical wiring were used to record the thousands of parameters necessary for the analysis of the aircraft's in-flight performance.
The A318 is powered by two General Electric CFM56-5s or Pratt & Whitney PW6000s with thrusts ranging from 21,600 to 23,800 lb (96 to 106 kN). Launch customers Frontier Airlines and Air France took deliveries in 2003, with Frontier receiving their models in July of that year. The price of an A318 varies from $39 to $45 million, and operating costs are around $3,000 for a 500 mile flight.
Airbus' initial efforts at developing a 100-seat airliner were focused on the all new AE31X program (covering the baseline 95-seat AE316 and 115- to 125-seat AE317) which Airbus and Alenia, as Airbus Industrie Asia, were developing in conjunction with AVIC of China, and Singapore Technologies. The AE31X program arose out of earlier Chinese and South Korean studies for a 100-seater, and a framework agreement covering its development was signed in May 1997. However on September 3, 1998, Airbus announced termination of the project saying it was not economically viable.
The AE31X would have flown in mid-2002 and entered service in mid-2003. Final assembly would have been undertaken at Xian in China by Xian Aircraft Company.
Even before the cancellation of the AE31X program Airbus had been independently studying a minimum change 100-seat derivative of the A319 covered by the A319M5 designation (M5 indicating minus five fuselage frames). Following the AE31X's cancellation, Airbus announced the commercial launch of the A319M5 as the A318 at the 1998 Farnborough Airshow.
With 109 orders signed, Airbus announced the airplane's industrial launch in April 1999, allowing full scale development to get underway. Program development cost was estimated at $US300m.
Compared with the A319, the A318 is 4.5 fuselage frames (2.40 m) shorter, and it‚s 11.5 frames (6.13 m) shorter than the A320. (The A321 is 13 frames [6.93 m] longer than the A320.)
During the design stage, the A318 ran into several problems. The first one was the decline in demand for new airplanes following the September 11, 2001, attacks. Another one was the new PW6000 engines, which burned more fuel than expected. By the time CFMI had the more efficient CFM56-5 ready for market, many A318 customers had already backed out, including Air China and British Airways.
America West Airlines, which had selected the Pratt & Whitney engines, amended its A318 orders, opting instead for A319 or A320 aircraft. Trans World Airlines cancelled a significant order for 50 A318 after being acquired by American Airlines, which does not operate any A320 family aircraft (although, neither did TWA when the order was originally placed). And while Airbus was hoping to market the A318 as a regional jet alternative, laws in both the U.S. and Europe have kept it in the same class as larger aircraft for calculating landing fees and the like, so regional operators have tended to avoid it.
The design of the A318 included a number of technology upgrades, many of which have been integrated into the rest of the A320 family. Some are also finding their way to the A380 super-jumbo aircraft. These upgrades include:
- A new touchscreen LCD panel at the flight attendants' stations in the cabin, to simplify access to environmental and communications controls- New cabin lighting based on LED light sources, instead of halogen and fluorescent bulbs
- Electrically powered backup braking systems, improving upon the older design using reserve hydraulic pressure- The use of laser-beam welding during construction, used to fasten floor stringers to the lower fuselage shell. Laser welding eliminates the need for rivets to secure the joint, which saves weight, and is faster, saving on assembly time.
Other changes specific to the A318 include a small dorsal fin added to the tail, modified wing camber, and a reduced size cargo door.
A318 models are available with a variety of different maximum take-off weights (MTOW) ranging from a 59-tonne, 2,750km (1,500nm) base model to a 68-tonne, 6,000km (3,250nm) version. The lower MTOW enables it to operate regional routes economically whilst sacrificing range, and the higher MTOW allows it to complement other members of the A320 family on marginal routes. The lighter weight of the A318 gives it an operating range 10% greater than the A320, allowing it to serve some routes that the A320 would be unable to: London-Jerusalem and Singapore-Tokyo, for instance. Its main use for airlines, however, is on short, low-density hops between medium cities.
The model offers the highest degree of airframe commonality of any aircraft in its size category, with more than 95 percent of part numbers shared with other members of the A320 Family. All major structural elements, the tailplane, the landing gear and major systems, including hydraulics and actuators, are basically the same as for the other A320 family members.
The A318 is part of the only single-aisle family in which full Category 3B landing capability is offered as basic equipment. Furthermore, flight operational commonality is also maintained, so it is possible for crew members to move freely between aircraft, including the A330 and A340, with only minor amounts of additional training. And no major cabin design changes were made, enabling airlines to offer consistent and seamless in-flight products to passengers who will only be able to determine whether they are on an A318 or another member of the A320 family by counting seats.
The high degree of commonality with other A320 family aircraft also allows Airbus to offer a significant fatigue maintenance advantage. The threshold for maintenance checks has been raised almost 25 percent to 30,000 flight cycles, providing a significant maintenance cost advantage for this short-haul, high-cycle aircraft.
The A318 is assembled alongside the A319 and A321 on the EADS/DaimlerChrysler Aerospace Airbus assembly line in Hamburg, Germany. (The A320 is assembled along with the Airbus widebodies in Toulouse, France.)
Orders for the A318 have been quite slow, only slightly better than for its direct competitor the Boeing 737-600. As of fall 2006 Airbus had received 90 orders for this model compared to 70 for the 737-600. The sales pace has been influenced by the strong sales of the Bombardier CRJ900 and the Embraer E-Jets series. Notable A318 customers are Air France; 18, America West Airlines; 15, LAN Chile; 20 and Mexicana 10. In May 2006 an A318 was tested at London City Airport for steep approach compatibility. This could improve sales to European operators.
On 10 November 2005 Airbus announced the A318 Elite. This is aimed at the medium-range market of up to 7,400 km (4,000 nm). There is a choice of two cabin layouts seating a maximum of either 14 or 18 passengers, and it will be powered by CFM engines. Comlux became the launch customer by ordering three.
The A318 faces stiff competition from other excellent aircraft from Brasil's Embraer, Canada's Bombardier and from Russia's Sukhoi all offering 90 to 110 seat jets with lower weights and operating costs.
As of November 2006, total deliveries of the A318 stood at 34. Of these, 34 were still in service.
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