AIRCRAFT
Video: Airbus A350 XWB Presentation
The Airbus A350 is a long-range, mid-sized, widebody family of airliners currently under development, designed to compete with the Boeing 777 and Boeing 787. It will also compete with Airbus' own A330 and A340, since plans to discontinue those models have not been announced.When Boeing announced their 787 Dreamliner project, they claimed the lower operating costs of this airplane would make it a serious threat to Airbus' A330. Airbus initially rejected this claim, stating that the 787 was itself just a reaction to the A330, and that no response was needed to the 787.
The airlines pushed Airbus to provide a competitor, as Boeing had committed the 787 to have 20% lower fuel consumption than the A330. Initially Airbus proposed a simple derivative of the A330, dubbed the A330-200Lite, with improved aerodynamics and engines. The airlines were not satisfied and Airbus committed euro4 billion to a new design to be called the A350. The original version of the A350 superficially resembled the A330 due to its common fuselage assembly. A new wing, engines and a horizontal stabilizer were to be coupled with new composite materials and production methods applied to the fuselage to make the A350 an almost all-new aircraft.
On September 16 2004, then Airbus president and CEO Noël Forgeard confirmed that a new project was under consideration, but did not give a project name, and would not state whether it would be an entirely new design or a modification of an existing product. Forgeard indicated that Airbus would finalise its concept by the end of 2004, begin consulting with airlines in early 2005, and aim to launch the new development programme at the end of that year.
On December 10 2004 the boards of EADS and BAE Systems, then the shareholders of Airbus, gave Airbus an "authorisation to offer (ATO)", and formally named it the A350.
On October 6 2005 full industrial launch of the program was announced with an estimated development cost of around euro3.5 billion. This version of the A350 was planned to be a 250&endash;300-seat twin-engined widebody aircraft derived from the design of the existing A330. Under this plan, the A350 would have modified wings and new engines while sharing the same fuselage cross-section as its predecessor. It was to see entry into service in 2010 in two versions; the A350-800 capable of flying 8,800 nautical miles (16,300 km) with typical passenger capacity of 253 in 3-class configuration and the 300-seat (3-class) A350-900 with 7,500 nautical mile (13,890 km) range. It was designed to be a direct competitor to the 787-9, and 777-200ER.
Almost immediately Airbus faced criticism on the A350 project by the heads of two of its largest customers, ILFC and GECAS. On March 28 2006, in the presence of hundreds of top airline executives, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, of ILFC lambasted Airbus' strategy in bringing to market what they saw as "a Band-aid reaction to the 787," a sentiment which was echoed by GECAS president Henry Hubschman. Udvar-Hazy called on Airbus to bring a clean-sheet design to the table, or risk losing most of the market to Boeing.
Several days later, similar comments were made by Chew Choon Seng, CEO of Singapore Airlines. Chew stated, "having gone to the trouble of designing a new wing, tail, cockpit" and adding advanced new materials, Airbus "should have gone the whole hog and designed a new fuselage." At the time, Singapore was reviewing bids for the 787 and A350.
Airbus responded by stating it was considering improvements for the A350 to satisfy customer demands. At the same time, Airbus then-CEO Gustav Humbert suggested that there would be no quick fixes, stating, "Our strategy isn't driven by the needs of the next one or two campaigns, but rather by a long-term view of the market and our ability to deliver on our promises."
On June 14 2006, Singapore Airlines announced it had selected the 787 over the A350, ordering 20 787-9s. Emirates decided against making an order for the A350 because of weaknesses in the design.
As a result of these criticisms, in mid-2006 Airbus undertook a major review of the A350 concept. The proposed new A350 was to become more of a competitor to the larger Boeing 777 as well as the Boeing 787, with a larger fuselage cross-section able to accommodate 9 passengers per row in economy class. The A330 and previous iterations of the A350 would only be able to accommodate 8 passengers per row in normal configurations.
The 787 can accommodate 8 or 9 passengers per row, while the 777 can accommodate 9 passengers per row or, rarely, 10. There was some speculation that the revised aircraft would be called the Airbus A370 or A280, with Airbus going as far as accidentally publishing an advert referring to the aircraft as the "A280" on the Financial Times website. However, on July 17 2006, at the Farnborough Air Show, Airbus announced that the redesigned aircraft would be called A350 XWB (Xtra Wide Body).
Airbus achieved its first sale of the redesigned A350 four days after its unveiling when Singapore Airlines announced an order for 20 A350 XWBs with options of a further 20. Its CEO, Chew Choon Seng, said in a statement, that "it is heartening that Airbus has listened to customer airlines and has come up with a totally new design for the A350."
Late in 2006 a decision on formal launch was delayed as a result of delays of the Airbus A380. and wrangles about how the development would be funded. EADS CEO Thomas Enders stated that the A350 program was not a certainty, citing EADS/Airbus' stretched resources. On December 1 2006 the EADS board agreed the industrial launch of the sixth iteration A350 with costs mainly borne out of cash-flow.
On January 4 2007, Airbus announced that Pegasus Aviation Finance Company had placed the first firm order for the A350 XWB with an order for two aircraft, though the variants were unspecified at the time.
The A350 will have a fuselage cross-section wider than the original A350 which used the existing Airbus widebody standard. Airbus refers to this as "XWB" or "Xtra Wide Body" and states that from the point of view of a seated passenger, the cabin is 5 inches wider at eye level than the competing Boeing 787. All A350 XWB passenger models will have a range of at least 8,000 nautical miles.
The aircraft will have a cruising speed of approximately Mach 0.85, similar to the Boeing 787 or Boeing 747, and Airbus claims that its maintenance costs will be 10% lower than for the 787. The A350 will have a common cockpit with the Airbus A380. Airbus also claims that the A350-900 will have fuel consumption per seat 7% lower than the Boeing 787-9. However, Boeing argues that the A350-900 should not be compared to the 787-9 as it is considerably larger. The A350 is to have large windows and will be pressurised to 6,000 feet or lower with a cabin air humidity of at least 20%.
The Airbus board of directors approved the industrial launch of the A350-800 / -900 & -1000 in December 2006 . The XWB will impose a couple of years of delay into the original timetable and almost double development costs from $5.3 billion to approximately $10 billion.
The A350 features composite wings, rear fuselage and fuselage skin (with aluminium ribs), new engines, new landing gear and many new systems compared to the A330. It builds on the technologies developed for A380 and has a similar cockpit layout. 52% of the aircraft will be made out of composites, 20% Al/Al-Li, 14% titanium, 7% steel and 7% the balance. This compares to the 787, which consists of 50% composites, 20% Aluminium, 15% titanium, 10% steel and 5% the balance.
Airbus had signed a firm contract with BMW to have them develop an interior concept for the original A350.
For the engines Airbus has confirmed that they will retain a full bleed air system on their engines, rather than the bleedless configuration used on the 787. Rolls-Royce has agreed with Airbus to supply a new variant of the Trent engine for the A350 XWB, currently called the Trent XWB, which will have a static thrust of 75000-95000 lbf.
Rolls Royce is the only engine supplier to date to announce that its engines will feature on the A350 XWB. GE has stated it will not offer the GP7000 on the aircraft, and that previous contracts for the GEnx on the original A350 did not apply to the XWB.
In April 2007, Airbus chief executive Louis Gallois held face-to-face talks with senior General Electric management over finalizing the possible go-ahead of a new variant of the GEnx engine for the A350 XWB. Airline pressure for a GE engine option is believed to be coming particularly from US Airways and Singapore Airlines, as well as others within the original launch group that either originally selected GE or that have not yet settled for the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered option. Qatar airways announced that it will use Rolls Royce engines on its aircraft. In June, 2007 Airbus' John Leahy has indicated that the GEnx engine will not feature on the A350, claiming that Airbus wants GE to offer a more efficient version for the new Airbus airliner.
The A350 fuselage will have a constant cross-section from door 1 to door 4, unlike previous Airbus aircraft. This is to provide maximum usable volume. John Leahy refers to the old design as "Airbus taper". In another change from the earlier A350 the fuselage is to be ovoid rather than circular.
Although Airbus previously suggested Boeing's use of composite materials for the 787 fuselage was premature, and that the A350's would be made from aluminium-lithium, the A350XWB is to have a composite main fuselage skin on an Al/Al-Li frame. This differs slightly from the 787 design which uses ovoid skin barrels on titanium ribs.
Airbus has yet to decide whether the forward fuselage and cockpit will be made from Al/Al-Li or a one-piece composite structure, like the rear fuselage.
There are three variants of the A350 and all launched in 2006. The A350-900 will enter service in 2013. The A350-800 will enter service in 2014. The last to enter service will be the A350-1000 in 2015.
The A350-800 will seat 270 passengers in a 3-class cabin and has a range of 8,300 nm (15,400 km).
The A350-900 is the first to enter service in 2013 and seats 314 passengers in a 3-class cabin. The airplane has a range of 8,100 nm (15,000 km).
The A350-1000 will enter service in 2015. It is the largest variant of the A350 family and will seat 350 passengers in a 3-class cabin. It has a range of 8,000 nm (14,800 km).
First delivery for the A350-900 is scheduled for mid-2013, with the -800 and -1000 following on, respectively, 12 and 24 months later. At a press conference December 4 2006 a few new technical details of the A350XWB design were revealed, but no new customers were identified and John Leahy indicated existing A350 contracts were under re-negotiation due to increases in prices compared to the original A350s contracted.
During 2007 Paris Air Show, in a major boost for the program, Airbus has won firm orders for 141 A350 XWB.
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