All About Airbus A350

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The Airbus A350 is a long-range passenger airliner currently under development.

The Airbus A350XWB is a proposed long-range mid-sized widebody passenger aircraft designed to compete with the Boeing 777 and 787. The A350 will have a new fuselage cross-section wider than the existing Airbus widebody standard. Airbus refers to this as "XWB" or "Extra 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. The 777's fuselage is 10 inches wider than the XWB, albeit with an extra passenger squeezed into the cross-section. The entire A350XWB family will have a range of at least 8,500 nautical miles.

There are three aircraft in the proposed family:

The aircraft will have a cruising speed of approximately Mach 0.85, similar to its Boeing 787 competitors, 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 states that the A350-900 will have fuel consumption per seat 7% lower than the Boeing 787-9. However, Boeing argues that A350-900 should be compared against Boeing 787-10, which have similar seats and range. 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%.

Industrial launch is planned for October 2006. The XWB will impose a couple of years of delay into the original timetable and double development costs from $5.3 billion to approximately $10 billion. [1]

Prior to May 2006, the A350 was planned to be a 250–300-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. The full industrial launch of the program was announced on 6 October 2005 with an estimated development cost of around € 3.5 billion. It was designed to be a direct competitor to the 787-9, the proposed 787-10 and 777-200ER.

Due to poor sales relative to the 787, in May 2006, Airbus announced that it was reconsidering the A350 design. The proposed new A350 was to become more of a competitor to the larger Boeing 777, with a larger fuselage cross-section able to accommodate up to 9 passengers per row. 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 or 10 passengers per row.

On 17 July 2006, at the Farnborough Air Show, Airbus announced the current A350 XWB design.

When Boeing announced their 7E7 Dreamliner project (now known as the 787), they claimed 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 €4 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 16 September 2004, 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 10 December 2004 the boards of EADS and BAE Systems, the shareholders of Airbus, gave Airbus an "authorisation to offer", and formally named it the A350.[2] In order not to upset the A330 market niche (as both have similar passenger capacity), the A350 is designed for longer ranges; from 7500 to 8800 nautical miles. This puts it squarely in competition with both Boeing's 787-9 and 777-200ER. The A350-900 gave Airbus, for the first time, a twinjet that rivals the 777-200ER's capacity and range and has generated a lot of interest.

The intention was that the A350 would be produced and assembled at the same facilities as the A330 and the A340, with however, additional risk-sharing partners and associates in China, Russia and other countries around the world. The market for aircraft in this size category is estimated at 3,300, including freighters, over the next 20 years, of which Airbus expected to obtain half.

The A350 project comes in the middle of a trade dispute between the U.S. and the EU about government support for Boeing and Airbus. An agreement dating back from 1992 and rules laid down by the World Trade Organization govern what are allowable government subsidies to aircraft manufacturers. The U.S. contends loans given to Airbus under favorable conditions by European governments violate these rules, and has filed a complaint with the WTO. The EU has responded by filing its own complaint about alleged subsidies received by Boeing for the development of the 787 and previous aircraft, and alleged cross-subsidies from military projects.

On 11 January 2005, the United States and the European Union announced their agreement to settle the Airbus-Boeing subsidies conflict through bilateral talks. Both the U.S. and the EU have refrained from giving new aid to the respective companies. However, negotiations may have very well ended in failure, since the UK has provisionally approved government aid to Airbus.[3] The U.K. would provide Airbus with 379 Million Euros to help fund the project; in exchange, the composite wings of the A350 would be built in the U.K. thus saving some 10,000 jobs. For more on the subsidy dispute see the Airbus, Boeing and 787 entries.

Airbus faced criticism on the A350 project by the heads of the company's two largest customers, ILFC and GECAS. On 28 March 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.[4][5] 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."[6] 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.[7] At the same time, then Airbus 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."[8] On 14 June 2006, Singapore Airlines announced it had selected the 787 over the A350. Emirates decided against making an order for the A350 because of weaknesses in the design.[9]

As a result of these criticisms, in mid-2006 Airbus undertook a major review of the A350 concept. There was some speculation that the revised aircraft would be called the Airbus A370. However, on 17 July 2006 Airbus announced that the redesigned aircraft would be called A350XWB (i.e. extra wide body).

The latest information Airbus has released indicates a family of all-new aircraft, with a slightly larger diameter fuselage than that of the 787. Three variants will be available. It is understood that one of these variants will have a range of more than 8800nm, exceeding that of the 787 and the original A350. The twin-aisle aircraft will seat economy class passengers 9 abreast, rather than the 8 proposed for the original A350. Airbus intends for the A350XWB to compete with both the Boeing 787 and its larger cousin, the Boeing 777.

As in the original A350, the wing will be a carbon composite structure. The fuselage will also have a large percentage of carbon composite. Previously, Airbus had had some misgivings about the integrity of such a structure, should it be in collision with ground vehicles. Extra large windows will also be featured. The cockpit will be based on that of the A380.

Rolls-Royce has agreed with Airbus to supply a new variant of the Trent engine (75000-95000lbf static thrust) for the A350XWB. General Electric has confirmed that the A350-800 will be offered with a variant of the GEnx engine, and is in talks with Airbus about offering it on the A350-900. The Trent and GEnx will be interchangeable. The A350-1000 will not be offered with GEnx engines. More recently, GE has talked about offering a variant of the Engine Alliance GP7200 instead of the GEnx. [10]

Airbus achieved its first sale of the redesigned A350 four days after its unveiling when Singapore Airlines announced an order for 20 A350XWBs 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." [11] Singapore Airlines has also ordered 20 787-9s. [12]

Airbus signed its first customer for the A350 in December 2004; Air Europa, a Spanish airline, will receive the first of 10 A350-800s in 2011 for covering its routes to Latin America and the Far East. The order from US Airways, was subject to its merger with America West and includes a loan of $250 million to the new group from Airbus.[13]

Originally, the A350 was to debut in 2010. Changes to the cockpit configuration have resulted in a revenue service start date of 2011.[14] The complete redesign which has resulted in the A350XWB version has now pushed target entry into service to mid-2012.

The entry-into-service dates in the table below do not reflect the new delays to the programme.

Entries shaded in pink have been announced, but have not yet signed a firm contract.

* It is not certain that the ILFC follow-on order reduced options to 4 from original 8.

** With the expected redesign of the A350, a Bloomberg report states that Airbus has signed a deal with Rolls-Royce for the engines of the new design.[15] On 17 July General Electric Aviation has announced that a variant of the GEnx engine will be offered for the A350-800 and is in talks of offering an engine for the A350-900. [16] GE has stated that they will not be offering an engine for the A350-1000. More recently, GE has talked about offering a variant of the Engine Alliance GP7200 instead of the GEnx.

The A350 features a new cabin, new wings, new engines, a new tail plane, new landing gear and many new systems compared to the A330. It builds on the technologies developed for A380, such as composite materials. In total, 60% of the A350 will be constructed using advanced materials. 39% of the A350 will use composite materials while aluminum-lithium parts will comprise 23% of the aircraft; steel, 14%; aluminum, 11%; titanium, 9% and various other materials, the balance. The A350 will feature a new composite wing and a fuselage built primarily with advanced aluminum-lithium alloys. The extensive use of composite and Al-Li will lead to 8,000 kg (17,600 lb) of weight reduction.

Airbus also has signed a firm contract with BMW to have them develop an interior concept for the aircraft.[17]

Airbus plans to use bleed-air versions of the bleedless engine technology (Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 and General Electric GEnx engines) developed for the 787.[17] Four thrust ratings, from 63,000 to 75,000 lbf (280 kN to 334 kN) will be offered on the GEnx.

There was a precedent for updating an older airliner to compete with a newer offering. Boeing updated their 737 product which resulted in the Next Generation 737 (737NG) in order to achieve similar operating costs to Airbus' A320 series. The 737 suffered in comparison with the A320, and in the same way the original A350 more than suffered in comparison with the all-new 787. However with the A350XWB Airbus has now decided to produce an all-new aircraft rather than an updated version of an existing aircraft.

The cabin of the A350 will be 75 mm wider than the 787 and will offer more headroom. Also, the A350 will have 1.63 m in head clearance around the window (compared to 1.56 m for the 787).

*Currently unconfirmed as Airbus is still in talks with General Electric and others about an alternate engine for the A350 XWB.

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