Obligatory picture of the Official Airbus Repair Kit
This is not a laughing matter.
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Oh, I see... It's Australian. I did not think that a European media outlet would use the term "troubled."
I got their power 8.
It would make a hell of a lawn ornament.
I was flipping channels a week or two when I came across a show on the Airbus. It must have been a year or two old as it was all praise on how well things were working out with parts being built all over Europe.
Anyway, this was on the very first one to be completed, and they were showing one of the last parts to be put on the plane. It was somewhere on top near the tail. I have no idea what it was for, but it looked like a small intrument package. There was a cable connection that had to be made once it was to be inserted.
To the embarrassment of the engineer/technician/factory worker, the connection was about two inches too short.
They could not install that last piece. It was not clear how they resolved that issue, but I was thinking to myself, I sometimes have problem when I build things myself, but if my bookcase falls apart no big whoops.
I would think these things would be engineered to the point where everything fit, the first time.
We will not launch the A350 without Power 8
More please, s'more government subsidies, please...
Power 8 will have soo much government interference, it will never be implemented successfully. The french are going to turn around and blackmail Germany, Spain, and UK into giving them the billions in launch subsides they will need to fund the A350 development.
They simply cannot do the A350 project. I would be completely surrending the widebody commercial airplane market to Boeing for 20+ years. Their pride would never allow it, even if the project ends up just like the A380 and never is profitable.
Hmmm, that didn't seem to slow their decision re. the A380.
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"AIRBUS would decide before the end of the month on whether to go ahead with its A350 jetliner, with the launch dependent on the success of a restructure, chief executive Louis Gallois said today."
This has to be a bunch of baloney. I really can't see how Airbus competes with Boeing in significant market segments without the A350.
Could Airbus really forgo the A350 and not be relegated to a tier below Boeing for a decade or more?
When all else fails, copy the Americans!
Hey, I know - what if we got James Baker to head up the Power 8 effort?
Proof that Boeing was crazy like a fox when they initially looked at a super-jumbo. Airbus jumped on the idea and sunk billions into development about the time being went the Dreamliner route... Now Airbus is too heavily invested in the A380- and cannot touch Boeing. Unless they get their A380 problems straightened out and get a lot of units produced and out the door (delivered) and a BUNCH more orders- they are going to have to worry about a lot more than the A350's future- they will be trying to figure out if Airbus has a future...
They are going to take the black aluminum approach to the A350. Boeing considered and rejected the black aluminum approach. Their savings in weight,parts count, labor etc would be negated.
The black aluminum approach is alot like the current method of building an airplane. That is attaching composite panels to a composite airframe instead of aluminum.
