“A350 XWB is on track” and 4 Lessons-Learnt by Fabrice Bregier.

Fabrice Bregier said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos that “the A350 XWB is on track” and that it has time to make changes that may arise from an investigation into the fault that grounded Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.

• Lesson learnt 1: supply chain.

Bregier, said Airbus had learned lessons from its troubled launch of the A380 superjumbo, including the need to limit the amount of work outsourced to other companies. "Sometimes we went too far on outsourcing work," Bregier said. "We need to make sure we control the architecture of the aircraft so as to have the safest and best aircraft."

• Lesson learnt 2: personal involvement in the challenges.

Mr. Bregier said he was taking personal charge of ensuring the success of the A350, which is due to make its first flight in the middle of 2013. He also said that certifying any new aircraft is “very difficult” because of “more and more stringent” rules applied by the authorities.

• Lesson learnt 3: Don´t panic. First maturity, second schedule.

"If I take the A350, we drew all the possible lessons from the A380," Bregier said. "And if by chance there is a decision regarding the 787 which would impact us, we would of course embark on that. And we have plenty of time."

• Lesson learnt 4: the launch customers are in the Middle East (Qatar Airways) and Asia (Singapore Airlines).

Bregier said the global environment was challenging, but growth in markets for new fleets in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America was more than making up for the recession in Europe.

"We are in a growing market and if I could deliver aircraft faster I would have more customers," he said. "Europe is now only 14% of our backlog, it was 50% 15 years ago."

 

Based on the article “Airbus CEO says A350 on track” published in CNN

Airbus CEO: we need to inject the aerospace virus to the younger generations. Target of 3.000 new jobs for 2013.

“There are 3,000 people to recruit around the world in 2013,” declared Fabrice Bregier, president and CEO of Airbus, at the company’s annual press conference in Toulouse, France.

Mr Bregier stated that Airbus is “bringing a lot to the European economy and will continue to recruit”.

However, recruitment will be at a slower pace than in the previous two years when Airbus employed 4,500 new people in 2011 and recruited 5,000 employees in 2012 increasing the global employee figure to 59,000

Regarding the breakdown of recruitment by Nations, for this target of 3.000 new jobs needed to support all programme developments (and based on different articles published) could be some similar to:

• France: 1.100

• Germany: 1.000

• Spain: 400

• UK: 300

• Other: 200

Airbus, which employs more than 100 different nationalities, has the target of hiring around 20% non-national candidates. Another target is hiring of 25% women & 20% female Engineers annually.

 

As Airbus says in their presentations, "Diversity is important to us because It reflects our diverse customer base + It increase our resource and talent pool + We benefit from the richness of diverse backgrounds. It is our differences that make the difference “

 

The younger generations are the future for Airbus, linked to Innovation. And Airbus is working with the challenge to "recharge the young´s aerospace batteries" as said in some forum.

Airbus not considering the A350-1100 possibility

Airbus appears to be dismissing the possibility of a further stretch to the A350, despite the capacity gap between the A350-1000 and the A380 (as shown in this Boeing´s chart).

The A350-1000 will be capable of seating 350 passengers in a typical 3-class configuration. High-density arrangements could lift this to 440. And the A380 has configurations of 400 to 525 seats.

While Airbus positioned the A350-900 as the central platform for the 3-member family, the backlog of the smaller A350-800 is eroding in favour of the larger variants.

Airbus does not see room for a further stretch beyond the A350-1000; "A double stretch has never been shown to work in this industry," claimed Airbus chief operating officer for customers John Leahy, speaking in Toulouse on 16 January. "We couldn't do it. And we don't think [Boeing] could do it either."

The A350-1000 underwent a redesign in 2009 to improve its thrust and range capabilities but Airbus resisted stretching the fuselage. The -1000 has yet to achieve convincing sales - a matter Leahy attributes to slot availability - but the aircraft has attracted orders from Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways.

 

We should wait until Le Bourget Air Show to watch the next movement; A350-800 could be cancelled, could be postponed or could be maintained. And it will be directly linked to the future decision in the higher range of the family, with 787-10X and 777X by Boeing and above commented possible A350-1100 version.

Based on the article “Airbus unconvinced over further A350 stretch” published in FlightGlobal

MSN003 final assembly will start in comming days

Arriving from St.Nazaire in the Beluga, the forward and central fuselage sections for the MSN003 will allow the FAL team to start the final assembly of the second flight test aircraft in comming days

The assembly in the nose section of the forward fuselage at St.Nazaire has been done with a higher maturity than the previous two aircraft and the lessons learnt have been applied. The installation of the FTI Flight Test Instrumentation components, and specially systems with all kind of provisions and fixed supports, has been the main challenge of last months. The cockpit systems and different modules have been suscessfully installed.

An enhanced reality project is in place for that purpose: the digital model of the aircraft is used to process it and to use a touch-screen tablet to look round inside the aircraft to check all the fixed supports and also to discuss the status of progress on the aircraft with the other departments involved.

The central fuselage has been more challenging because of panels manufactured by Spirit, that have been delayed to achieve a big rate of completion which allows to avoid travelling work to the FAL in Toulouse. Additionally, other components in the central fuselage, with many interfaces involved, have required more development than expected.

The arrival of these two first components in the final assembly was initially planned for Cristhmas, so the assembly team at the FAL will try to recover this delay. The aft sections of the fuselage should be in the final stage in Germany to be shipped to the FAL during February.

  

Based on the article “A350, A380, A400M, "supply chain" tendue... les quatre grands défis d'Airbus pour 2013” published in La Tribune

Batteries incident in 787 could impact the A350 XWB first flight targeted for Le Bourget in mid-June/2013. Safety is the first

Airbus knows that what happens to Boeing could in similar form happen to Airbus so nobody at Airbus is anything but empathetic. CEO Fabrice Breigier expressed sincere hope for Boeing’s plight and efforts to return the 787 to service, and this reflected universal sentiment.

Regarding the use of lithium batteries on the A350 XWB, Airbus officials, without any hint of criticism over Boeing’s choice of an all-electric airplane, simply explained the differing philosophies that led to Airbus’ conclusion to retain more tradition methods of powering the A350: hydraulics and pneumatics. The benefits of all-electric didn’t offset the risks and costs enough to go this route, officials said. The result is that the A350 XWB actually draws less power from batteries than the A330 because of design efficiencies, they said. Further, the Auxiliary Power Unit on the A350 XWB is started by two batteries splitting the load versus one battery on the 787 carrying all the load. That leads to less power per battery being required in A350. “But that does not mean that we may not be facing the same issues as Boeing,” said Tom Williams EVP-Programs.

Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier tried to calm everyone and said there is not foresee an imminent effect of the Boeing 787 grounding on the Airbus A350 XWB program. “Airbus went through discussions with the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency about the electric architecture of the aircraft and they seemed very happy at the time.”

Airbus will “carefully study” recommendations that come out of the Boeing 787 investigation and evaluate whether they apply to the A350, with Bregier noting that the A350 still is in the development stage, so modifications are still possible.

However, Executive VP-Programs Tom Williams concedes that replacing the lithium-ion batteries would be a “very serious decision” and possibly cause “months in delays” in the A350 program, impacting the first flight.

The real impact on Airbus is still uncertain. While Airbus has selected a different supplier, Saft, for the batteries, the A350 XWB also is a less electric aircraft than the 787. Systems such as braking and functions such as de-icing are still performed in the conventional way, using hydraulics and bleed air, respectively.

According to Williams, Airbus has design features intended to make the battery operation particularly safe, including mechanical relief vents made of titanium. “The critical issue is to get failure management right,” he says.

Airbus could use nickel-cadmium batteries, but that would require a huge effort, and would lead to a significant weight and space penalty. Also, nickel-cadmium batteries are prone to the memory effect and cannot be recharged fully after a certain number of cycles.

Based on the article “Airbus Awaits Decision On Lithium-Ion Batteries Destined For A350 Platform” published in Aviation Daily

A350 XWB: 27 ordered in 2012. As of 31/December/2012, it has 582 orders from 34 customers

During the Annual Press Conference held on 17/January/2013, Airbus highlighted the orders signed in 2012.

"In the widebody market, 58 A330s and 27 A350 XWB were ordered. The A350-1000 won major endorsements from leading airlines through significant upsizing orders."

As of 31/Dec/2012, the A350 XWB has 582 orders from 34 customers

A350-900: 385
A350-1000: 105
A350-800: 92

 

 

Second A350 XWB supplier rescued by Airbus: Spanish Alestis Aerospace.

Airbus may invest in one of its key suppliers in Spain, Alestis Aerospace, to protect the delivery of parts and ensure Alestis can pay its own subcontractors (around 200 in Andalucia).In principle, this operation will be temporary.

Airbus has been supporting Alestis for more than a year, since the Spanish company struggled to receive credit, and the Toulouse-based planemaker is now considering an outright investment, said Airbus spokesman Jaime Perez-Guerra.

Suppliers including Alestis, which makes parts for all Airbus aircraft including the new A350 XWB, have struggled to keep pace. Airbus purchased PFW in 2011 after the German supplier lost access to credit. It is striking that both PFW & Alestis manufacture also parts for Airbus´ competitor 787.

 

“At this point our main aim is to guarantee that Alestis will deliver on its obligations to us, and for that we need a solution for the long term,” Perez-Guerra said.

Airbus has sent in managers to help Alestis in areas such as engineering and operations. The manufacturer may invest 21 million euros ($28 million) for a controlling 56.5% stake (from a previous 1.8%), Spanish paper El Pais reported Jan. 9. The adjustment implies 365 fired employees from a total of 1.800 in all facilities and plants located in Spain and Brazil.

The amount of workload for Alestis coming from Airbus is about worth about 2.3 billion euros over the next 10 years, Perez-Guerra said. The company’s two main work packages for the A350 XWB are the belly fairing and the section19.1 (tail cone).

 

Based on the article “Airbus May Invest in Spanish Supplier Alestis to Secure Work” published in Bloomberg