Naim 6 Report post Posted March 31, 2006 Airplane kingpins tell Airbus: Overhaul A350 By Dominic Gates Seattle Times aerospace reporter ORLANDO, Fla. — Two of the world's most powerful airplane buyers yesterday said Airbus should completely rethink the plane it has proposed to compete against Boeing's strong-selling new 787. Steven Udvar-Hazy, probably the most respected figure in the global business of buying and selling airplanes, predicted the current version of Airbus' A350 would sell poorly and leave Boeing to dominate the lucrative market for midsized wide-bodies. He stunned a packed audience of some 700 aviation professionals here by calling on Airbus to scrap its existing A350 design and spend many additional billions on a brand-new airplane with a new fuselage and a new wing. "That's probably an $8 billion to $10 billion decision. Airbus is at a crossroads," said Udvar-Hazy, founder, chairman and chief executive of the second-largest airplane-leasing company, Los Angeles-based International Lease Finance Corp. ... read more here: http://snipurl.com/ofu0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Naim 6 Report post Posted March 31, 2006 Follow-up story. +++ BusinessWeek MARCH 30, 2006 Europe By Carol Matlack The Escalating Woes at Airbus Just when things were going so well for the European plane maker, two major customers demand costly redesigns. The likely winner: Boeing Airbus, struggling to gain altitude against a couple of archrival Boeing's (BA ) hot-selling models, has hit two major patches of turbulence in the past few days. On Mar. 28, the European planemaker's biggest customer, the International Lease Finance Corp., a Los Angeles-based subsidiary of American International Group (AIG ), called for a top-to-bottom redesign of the A350, the plane Airbus plans to launch as a rival to Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. ... read more here: http://snipurl.com/og92 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
S V Choong 4 Report post Posted March 31, 2006 That reminds me of the DC-10 vs. Tristar war. Tristar's entry into service was delayed 1 year by Rolls Royce and left DC-10 to take off earlier. Imagine what's gonna happen to the A350 which is scheduled to debut 3 years after the Boeing 787! By that time the A330/340 technology which also used on the A350 will be really old. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bing Chu 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2006 The A350 has always been considered as a knee jerk response by A when they finally woke up to the threat posed by B's 787 (or 7E7 as it was known then) to their own offerings. But A was too occupied with getting the whalejet off the drawing board and into the sky at that point in time to be able to come up with any novel design - hence the A350 has from the beginning been conceived more as a modified, glorified version of the 330. Some will argue that this derivative approach to a new aircraft lessen development cost and reduce design risks. However, not starting from a clean sheet also means less new technology can be incorporated, and with it a whole lot of potential performance and operational enhancements compared to current technology airframes. So, not surprising at all there is this call for a 'redesign' of the A350. Whether A still has enough stuffing within it to turn out yet another new design is wide open for debate. The A380 has sunk a deep hole and even by A's own figures, has not reached breakeven point yet - ie it's not making money to repay development costs yet. The worrying part, orders for the whalejet seem to have stagnated. Remember also that the 330 and 340 are not so ancient designs either. I doubt very much if A could have fully recovered development costs for these twin designs yet, not with the fierce competition B furnished with their 777 offerings. Ah, how fast things change. It was only last year or so when A was thumping its own chest, B was struggling to get it's 747 reincarnated (still struggling I say), the 737 was losing battle after battle to 320 But then, it's all extra spice to the US vs Europe rivalry ! (Perhaps off topic, I reckon the real winner is China !) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
S V Choong 4 Report post Posted March 31, 2006 (Perhaps off topic, I reckon the real winner is China !) Ditto that, also by playing political cards of both sides. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
