A350

This a bold prediction on Airbus’s part considering both the A330 and the 777 are both selling well and are well established in the market, the 787 will have a three year head start on the A350 when it finally enters service in from 2010. And, as recently pointed out by Scott Hamilton at his online ‘Leeham.net’ blog, the 270-seat+ A350 appears to have yielded the lower end of the market to replace 200 to 250-seat 757/767s, A330-200s and A300/310s to the 242-seat 787-8, instead targeting the larger 787-9, 777-200ER/LR and 777-300ER with its 270-seat A350-800, 314-seat A350-900, and 350-seat A350-1000 respectively.

Media at Hamburg were shown cross section mock-ups of the planned composition of the A350’s fuselage barrel which is planned to be 12.5cm wider than the 787, but about five cm narrower than the 777. Whilst not carved out of several solid pieces of composite like the 787, the A350 will still use a large proportion of carbon fibre. From a distance the mock-up looks fairly conventional, but it is only when you get closer do you see the composite internal ribs and stringers, and large outside composite panel skins, cleverly impregnated with a wire mesh faraday cage between layers of fibres. In the mock-ups we saw, only the aircraft’s cargo and main deck floor structures, and many of its fasteners were metallic in nature.

Airbus says it is offering the A350-900 for an Entry Into Service (EIS) in 2013, and has established a fairly conservative development and test program in order to comfortably meet that timetable. The A350-800 is planned to follow in 2014, while the larger -1000 will enter service in 2015, fully 11 years after Boeing’s class-leading 777-300ER.

A350 program head, Didier Evrard explained that final assembly of the first A350 will commence at the company’s Toulouse facility in mid 2011, and that five A350s will be involved in the 3000 hour flight test program from the first quarter of 2012, all of which will fly within six months of the first. The manufacturer has allocated a conservative 15 months to the flight test program (compared to just nine months for the 787), although Evrard said the program could be finished in as little as 12 months. The second and fifth of the five aircraft will be fitted with interior cabins for cabin feature definition and validation, to verify the cabin’s behaviour in the composite structure, for customer demonstration flights and environmental testing, and for passenger carrying route proving flights prior to service entry. The flight test program will also validate cabin noise levels and sound proofing in the company’s first majority composite aircraft, and will also test the aircraft’s ability to successfully conduct electrical energy like that generated by lightning strikes.

The sixth A350 off the line will be the first customer aircraft.

A digital mock-up and a comprehensive virtual and actual functionality testing program will also help to validate many of the aircraft’s systems prior to first flight. Evrard added that the A350-900 had recently passed the critical Maturity Gate 5 (MG5) review which has seen the design’s fuselage, wings, empennage and systems architecture frozen, and that the design has reached a level of maturity that will allow the manufacturing of the first parts to commence by the end of this year. “It’s not a risk-free or challenge-free program,” he told us. “But we are on time, we are progressing along where we are meant to be with the maturity gates. We met the first important one on time and we are ready for the second one.”

Recent weight increases for all three A350 models has seen nominal engine thrust figures for the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines also increase, which may adversely affect previously promised fuel burn and efficiency numbers, at least in the early stages of the build run.

With each model gaining three tonnes on their empty weight targets late last year in order to maintain promised payload/range figures, each of the three corresponding Trent XWD models have had their thrust ratings increased by about 1000lb (4.5kN).

And a recent design change in the rear galley area is also yet to be frozen. Customer advice showed that the galley in its previous D-shaped form has insufficient workspace and was difficult to turnaround quickly, so Airbus has redesigned a new U-shaped galley which has been greeted with more positive feedback.

Whilst the A350-900 will be the first model to fly, development of the shorter -800 and longer -1000 will continue concurrently, with the -800 expected to pass its MG5 milestone by the end of this year, and the -1000 following in April 2011.

Company CEO, Tom Enders told media that he doesn’t expect the A350 to see the same development and testing hurdles as those experienced by the A380 and Boeing’s 787, and Airbus’s military A400M. “What makes me confident is that we took as many lessons as we could away from the A380,” Enders told a small gathering of Australian and New Zealand media in Hamburg. “But a lot still has to happen — particularly as far as training skilled workers is concerned.” Enders was quick to spread the blame for the A380 and A400M delays, saying he thought it was “more management than blue-collar workers” in most cases.

Airbus is currently holding orders for 483 A350s from 30 customers, numbers which have been achieved or confirmed since the latest XWB incarnation was launched in 2006, and says that puts the A350 fully 100 orders ahead of the 787 at the equivalent stage. But at least 100 of these orders were converted from previous forms of the A350 which was originally marketed as not much more than a warmed over A330.

Boeing, for its part, has said it will wait until the A350-1000 is more clearly defined before it decides whether to go for a whole 777-300ER replacement, or just a freshen up. Airbus, for its part is predicting that its offering should be more than 25 per cent more efficient on a seat-by-seat basis than the -300ER, which suggests a replacement for 777 may be more likely.