Posted on 06/15/2013 7:38:27 AM PDT by EveningStar
Airbus test pilots and managers celebrated Friday after the long-awaited inaugural flight of the Airbus A350 XWB went off without a hitch.
Aviation enthusiasts around the world had their eyes on France as the aircraft took off from Toulouse-Blagnac airport around 10 a.m. local time and landed safely about four hours later.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Airbus A350 XWB completes maiden flight
Airbus A350 XWB completes first flight: Perfect touchdown
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Lessee... I learned something very important: the test crew waved an Airbus flag from a hatch. I’m so happy CNN had room in the article for that bit of irrelevant trivia. Whoopee.
I also learned that the A350-800 seats 270 passengers, while the A350-900 seats 314 and the A350-1000 seats 350 passengers. Oh, that’s interesting. I wonder why they didn’t tell us how many wheels they have?
BUT... the ONE pertinent bit of information that caused me to read this article in the first place, and probably caused most people to read it, WAS TOTALLY ABSENT; namely, how many passengers can the XWB seat? That would be 440, max. Had to look it up elsewhere.
Thanks, CNN. For nothing. Next time I see a CNN article, I will start elsewhere to get answers I’d like to have, and not waste my time.
No reflection whatsoever on you, EveningStar, but I HATE the LSM, and not just for political reasons.
Huh?
The “XWB” is a name for the A350 family, not a single model.
Did the batteries stay nice and cool? :)
Airbus A350 XWB completes maiden flight
Airbus A350 XWB completes first flight: Perfect touchdown
Airbus' A350 XWB makes its first flight
And here is yet another:
Airbus Unveils Jet and Broadens Rivalry With Boeing
Funny you posted this. In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:
For Airbus and Bankers, Big A340s Pose Sizable Risks
Airlines Shun the Jets, Citing Operating Costs; Financing Terms Threaten Losses
By DANIEL MICHAELS
As Airbus prepares to celebrate as early as Friday the first flight of its A350, which already has attracted more than 600 orders, the European aircraft maker and its bankers are facing what could be hundreds of millions of dollars of losses on the new airplane’s failed predecessor.
In 2002 Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. founder Richard Branson unveiled the first big Airbus A340 jetliner at a glitzy spectacle, with supermodel Claudia Schiffer on hand to draw attention to the $200 million plane.
Qatar Airways has tried to shed four A340 jets, such as the one above, seen in 2006. Airlines say the planes are too costly to operate.
Last fall, however, Virgin sent the huge jetliner back to Airbus, with its metallic silver-and-purple exterior repainted generic white. Now, Airbus is negotiating to sell the plane to a Maltese leasing company for less than $20 million, a steep markdown, according to people close to the talks.
Virgin isn’t alone in ditching its big A340s. Leading airlines from Canada to China have unloaded the massive planes after just a few years of use, and new takers have been few. The four-engine intercontinental jets cost too much to operate, the airlines say.
“Unfortunately,” says Akbar Al Baker, chief executive of Qatar Airways, the A340 isn’t an old car “that you can just throw away.” He said a deal to shed the four A340s that Qatar owns collapsed because the potential customer wanted extra cash to take the planes.
Plunging A340 values are hitting major European banks that finance many Airbus sales. More than 10 European banks are pressing Airbus to compensate them for losses on A340 deals or do more to find homes for unwanted aircraft, according to people close to the talks.
end of snip.........
Nobody wants to pay for four engines any more...except pilots, who like the redundancy.
When I get a hankering for my daily dose of brainwashing and fluff, I go to the CommunistNewsNetwork.
I see your 'huh?' and raise you a 'huh?' How many does this particular A350 XWB, which was flown on Friday, seat?
Airbus shot themselves in the foot when they decided to go with the a380 instead of competing with the a350 against the Boeing 787 right away. Now they are way behind the 8-ball.
That particular A350 XWB is the A350-900, but it is an instrumented test aircraft full of equipment in the passenger cabin and can only seat around 20.
How many can a typical production A350-900 seat cannot be answered with a single number, just as it cannot be answered with a single number for any commercial jetliner built today. How many passengers an aircraft can seat depends entirely on how the purchasing airline lays out the cabin.
The A350-900 can typically seat 314 in a three-class layout (first, business, and coach,) 366 in a two class layout (business and coach,) and a maximum (when certified) capacity of 475 in an all coach narrow seat pitch layout that nobody will use. Link to Airbus A350-900 Seating Layout.
The number of passengers could be much lower than 314 since this is designed to be a long distance aircraft, and many airlines may wish to make the first and business classes with lay-flat seats, leaving less space for coach.
Oh, and apparently the Dreamliners over in Japan have started switching off their engines for no explainable reasons ....
I don’t think that the A380 was a mistake. It killed the market for B747-400 and forced Boeing to build the B747-8i. This aircraft doesn’t sell so well and now is under attack from below by the B777-X9.
Airbus didn’t benefit directly from B787 battery problems. Airbus used the same lithium batteries on A380 without problems. Airbus switched to old NiCd batteries not due to safety reasons but due to avoid problems with any upcoming certification requirements.
Airbus did sell more A330 after the B787 program was started then before. To keep pressure on Boeing Airbus could start an A330NEO in a few years. A350 is larger than A330. There might be enough costumers for A330-200 with new engines.
There aren’t going to be new engines for the A330. Aint nobody got time for that.
With Max effort, the earliest a next gen engine would be available would be around 2019 and by then, the A330 will be pretty long in the tooth.
GE won’t let the GP7200 go on other airframes that compete against GE engines, Rolls is tapped out and Pratt has at least 4 new engines in the fire, none of which are easily scalable to 70K thrust.
Already having 3 engine choices has allowed the A330 last a few years longer than natural as it was a lack of choices that killed the A340 (basically the same airframe).
There are already new engines for A350 or B787 like Trent XWB or GEnx. Therefore Airbus could do an A330NEO. I guess Airbus will do this after A350 is outsold and A330NEO then offers a quicker replacement for e.g. B767 or other outdated aircraft just some airfreight companies or US Air Force want.
Airbus could do this after the A320NEO is finished. With A400M and A350 being out of design phase engineering capacity is available.
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