"Tokyo, Mr. Sulu, I'm in the mood for sushi".
Posted on 04/11/2006 10:10:49 AM PDT by skeptoid
Promise follows complaints from potential buyers
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
THE NEW YORK TIMES
PARIS -- Airbus said Monday that after receiving complaints from potential buyers, it would look at making improvements to its long-range A350, which competes with the Boeing Co.'s new 787 Dreamliner.
"I want to note that Airbus listens to its customers," Gustav Hubert, Airbus chief executive, told reporters at company headquarters in Toulouse, France.
His comments came after Chew Choon Seng, chief executive of Singapore Airlines, said last week that Airbus should have gone ahead and designed a new fuselage for the A350, since it had already designed a new wing, tail, and cockpit for it. Singapore Airlines is expected to announce a major order for wide-body jetliners in early May.
In addition, Steven Udvar-Hazy, chief executive of International Lease Finance, a major customer of Airbus, said recently that the company ought to widen the fuselage and redesign the wing on the A350.
Airbus had decided to stake its future on the A380, the largest commercial jetliner built.
The A380 has been dogged with problems ranging from complaints about noisy engines to problems with weight and fuel economy.
Boeing rejected building a huge competing aircraft in favor of the midsize 787 Dreamliner, a new-generation twin-aisle aircraft with a fuselage made of composite material rather than aluminum.
As the first three years of Dreamliner production quickly sold out, Airbus announced the A350 in 2004 to compete with it.
At first, the A350 was basically little more than a derivative of the current wide-body A330. But as the months have gone by, the A350 has been redesigned several times. There have been new engines, new systems, and greater use of lightweight composites, raising the development cost by billions.
Airbus has 100 firm orders for the A350, compared with 298 contracts for the Dreamliner, according to Bloomberg News.
The 787 is scheduled to start flying commercially in 2008, with the A350 to begin operating in 2010.
© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
and
"The A380 has been dogged with problems ranging from complaints about noisy engines to problems with weight and fuel economy."
and
"....as the months have gone by, the A350 has been redesigned several times. ..."
I wonder how serious this is. LOTS more development costs for a derivative and will the final product be competetive? And I wonder why the A380 problems are in the piece. This is from the P. I. but the NY Times is the 'author'.
Gotta gota work.
Boeing>airbust
No contest.
On top of which, the Brits have bailed out of Airbus - which means that the French won't be getting any more Boeing tech from that avenue.
That's what happens when government gets in the private business business.
Just on a side note ... does Boeing still have on the drawing boards (or ever had) a super fast plane to wisk people from say Toyko to NY in 75 minutes?
I thought there was something like this being looked at.
75 min ??! Boeing developed a prototype back in 1968 which was used in the star trek episodes. It was called the 'Transporter'.
Notice they DO NOT mention the number of Airbus crashes due to their use of Fly-By-Wire control system software glitches.
Boeing always did have the right idea.
I have logged 100s of 1000s of pasenger miles and I won't fly on Airbus
period end of subject, letter to my employer, you can take this job and shove it before you book me on one of those death traps
"Tokyo, Mr. Sulu, I'm in the mood for sushi".
The 777 is just eating the A330 and A340 for breakfast, lunch, and dinner right now.
The A380 will NEVER equal the 747 in orders because 1. Next generation 74s will remain popular, especially for cargo service by the likes of Cargolux, while the 777 remains in favor for those who want range but don't need to transport over 500 people. Its a much more flexible aircraft (the 777).
That would be a grand total of one, an incident in which the pilot was trying to fly against the flight envelope protection.
In the late 80's and early 90's they were going against Airbus and McDonnell Douglas with a very weak 737 line. The A320 was amazing. The MD-80 was cheap and as capable, but slightly less efficent than the 737 Classics. To this day I have no idea how they sold as many of those as they did. I just couldn't stand dealing with them. They were so out of touch that is was unbelievable. They once sent a bid that met two out of five criteria set out in the RFP. When we took them out of the running they seemed awe struck!
By comparison, dealing with McDonnell Douglas and Airbus was down right enjoyable. McDonnell Douglas and Airbus actually wanted our business. A Douglas executive once commented to me that a certain Boeing executive did more to help their commercial aircraft business than McDonnell Douglas ever had. They even joked about putting him on the payroll.
Boeing is doing well these days because someone reminded them that it is actually their job to sell airplanes. Boeing is fighting Airbus for every order. A few years ago Boeing sent JetBlue and Frontier packing with cash in hand for 737NG's. Airbus won by default.
Boeing is matching Airbus dollar for dollar, slot for slot. In many ways Boeing has become Airbus, the 787 is highly subsudized, major structures are built by multiple international partners.
A few years ago people speculated Boeing was going to get out of the business. It is an impressive turn-around. I personally have a professional perference for Airbus just from my experience. But no one has an interest in a market with only one strong aircraft maker. It isn't in Boeings interest either because they just self-destruct when their it.
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