They can do better, just give them "more time". Communism will work, we just need the 'right leaders'
Posted on 07/17/2006 9:56:03 AM PDT by lowbuck
Airbus today revealed the cost of developing a rival to Boeing's mid-sized 787 jet soared to $10 billion (£5.5bn) after the struggling European planemaker announced a radical revamp of its A350 project at the Farnborough International Airshow.
Following pressure from airline executives who were unenthusiastic over earlier designs, Airbus will scrap a fuselage it has used for decades and will offer three wider-body (XWB) variations of A350 – rather than the two originally planned.
The revisions mean the cost of the A350 XWB, designed to take on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, have now almost doubled to $10 billion. The original estimate was $5.7 billion.
New Airbus chief executive Christian Streiff said today: "Yes, Airbus is in the middle of a serious crisis in our relationship with our customers. Yes, this is something we are taking extremely seriously inside Airbus, and yes, we know the competition is taking advantage of this today."
He said he wanted three months to prepare for formal industrial launch of the project: "What is needed now in this critical situation is not to be hasty but to act quickly."
M Streiff M Streiff was appointed after Gustav Humbert was ousted because of delays to A380 super-jumbo.
Noël Forgeard, co-chief executive of EADS, Airbus main parent company, was also forced to resign after the delays were announced just days after BAE, the British aeronautical and weapons group, said it planned to sell its 20 per cent stake in Airbus.
The A350 was expected to figure at the centre of talks today between EADS executives and the trade and industry secretary, Alistair Darling.
Mr Darling is seeking to safeguard the group's 16,000 British workers. The British Government also hopes to retain at least one British seat on the EADS/Airbus boards should BAE Systems dispose of its stake.
The A350, which is expected to enter service from 2012, will hope to beat the market-leading Boeing 787 and 777 models on fuel efficiency.
Airbus now lags arch-rival Boeing on passenger orders for the first time in half a decade
Earlier this month, Airbus said it had booked 117 firm orders for passenger jets in the first half of 2006, less than half the number in the same period last year. Boeing reported 480 orders at the end of July - around four times as many as Airbus over roughly the same period.
The twin-engined Boeing 777 outsold the Airbus’s A340 at a rate of 10-to-1 last year as high fuel prices prompted airlines to buy the more efficient model.
Airbus said it had received just 20 orders for long-haul models, which include the A330, A340, A350 and A380. There have been no orders for the A380 so far this year.
Rolls Royce Group has now said it would be forced back to the drawing board for an engine for the A350. Rolls Royce would not comment on whether the redesign of the Trent 1700 engine would lead to extra costs.
I wonder if the customers are going to wait? The incentives must be major to keep them from jumping ship!
Perhaps the eurobureaucracy of Airbus has reached the point where it can no longer design a viable plane at all?
Is there anything these Socialists cannot screw up?
Sounds like The Euro weinies "BIG DIG"
Sounds like The Euro weinies "BIG DIG"
Redesigns are always done with free engineering.< /sarcasm >
not much over a year ago that the doom and gloomers were predicting the demise of Boeing and boasting about the wonderful products from Airbus.
Reality sets in....
Isn't socialism wonderful.........surely they have the answer to all the world's problems!
LOL, more like the BIG PIG (A380)!
Mi Disgusto! Que revolto!
Be Seeing You,
Chris
And it is a beautiful thing to watch. :-)
Boeing as of late is focusing more space and military aircraft then commercial flight last time I heard. Might not be a bad idea, they can use the tech they make from making space rockets and make a commercial airliner that can rip apart any Eurowiener socialist airliner.
They can do better, just give them "more time". Communism will work, we just need the 'right leaders'
No.
The U.S, should draw up a list of punitive tariffs right now, for the day when Germany, France, Spain and the UK illegally "loan" money to Airbust to cover this program's shortfall.
Actually, the delay may work to Airbus' advantage. Any current customer of the prior A350 is already in line for the XWB, so if they jump ship and go for the Dreamliner they will be at the back of that very long line and will probably receive delivery a year or two later than the A350XWB, even considering the redesign time.
The same is true for any potential customers that sat on the sidelines waiting for Airbus' redesign. Whichever aircraft they eventually choose, their delivery date will probably be about the same.
That's why Boeing has been shaking the trees of their suppliers to increase production rate so they can promise more customers a sooner delivery date. However, this is exactly the same behavior by Boeing during the last boom cycle that darn near killed the company. They over-promised delivery, under-priced the product, and ended up losing money on each aircraft.
The cost are doubled because they have put themselves in a position where they are actually developing 2 planes (under one name to save face). One to compete against the 787 and one to compete against the 777.
The one to compete with the 777 is also going to compete with the stretched 787-10 if it ever gets the formal green light. Boeing is reluctant to go ahead with the 787-10 because it would eat into the sales of the lower end 777s, but their hand may be forced by Airbus.
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