Engines and APU installed on the MSN001.

Airbus has installed on the first flight-test A350 XWB (MSN001) its two flight-ready Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines and is also installing the new Honeywell HGT1700 auxiliary power unit (APU) at the FAL.

The new Trent engines were both received from UTC Aerospace Systems (formerly Goodrich) which had recently prepared the fully integrated powerplants prior to their installation on the aircraft’s pylons.

Click on the image to watch a video

The Trent XWB has already the Type Certification from EASA, and has been flying on the A380 Test Bed since more than a year, demonstrating a high level of maturity.

In parallel to the mounting of the two Trent XWB engines in Toulouse, the A350 XWB is also this week being fitted with its new specially developed APU – the Honeywell HGT1700 which has greater power density and higher efficiency than the previous generation APUs.

 

Click on the image to watch another video

With the installation of its engines and also the APU, the A350 XWB MSN001 becomes essentially a ‘completed’ aircraft. Following the ongoing ground tests, other preparations and also painting in the coming weeks, MSN001 will then be handed over to the Airbus Flight Test team to start preparations for ground runs and maiden flight in few months.

Based on the article “Airbus installs Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines and Honeywell APU on A350 XWB MSN001” published in www.airbus.com

Japan Airlines studying the A350-1000 for replacement of the B777´s. Decision will be announced in Le Bourget.

 Japan Airlines may buy about 20 A350-1000 for around $4.23 billion, as per the Nikkei daily.

The Japanese carrier is considering using A350-1000 jets on flights to Europe and the United States to replace its Boeing 777 jets, and is set to make a final decision on the purchase by Le Bourget Air Show in June, the newspaper said, without citing sources.

Japan Airlines is currently a full Boeing company but the Chairman said some weeks ago that he had reservations from the start on relying on one vendor. "When I first became chairman of JAL in February 2010 I found out that 100 percent of Japan aircraft were made by Boeing - I felt that was abnormal. This is not to say there was anything wrong with Boeing but a dual vendor situation is preferable. In a normal market there is tremendous risk from relying on one vendor. In order to provide good products at good prices, at lower prices a dual vendor system is a must."

The deal for the A350-1000 would include a simulation facility for pilot training.

The carrier’s seven Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets have been grounded since mid-January after problems with its lithium-ion battery, and JAL President Yoshiharu Ueki said that this grounding is likely to reduce their operating profit in the two months to end-May by $11.6 million.

Based on the article “JAL may buy 20 Airbus A350 jets” published in Nikkei.

Norwegian Air doesn´t think to change the 787 with the A350 XWB although the delay of the first 787s has forced them to lease 2 A340s and they will ask for discounts as part of delay compensation.

Norwegian Air CEO Bjoern Kjos said he’s looking to buy more Boeing 787s to add long-haul routes even as the company’s first Dreamliners remain on hold after the model was grounded.

Europe’s fourth-biggest discount carrier is starting to map out its needs beyond the eight 787-8s due by 2015, and may order the larger 787-9 as early as this year because the plane’s per- seat costs make it attractive, Kjos said.

Norwegian Air is among airlines affected by the idling of the global Dreamliner fleet on 16/Jan in the wake of incidents with lithium-ion batteries.

“There’ll be a delay that hits us on the first two aircraft,” Kjos said. Norwegian Air has leased two Airbus A340s to provide cover, one for 2 months, the other for 3, during which time the 787s should arrive, he said.

Norwegian Air is scheduled to introduce 3 787s this year, 4 next and the 8th in 2015, with 5 leased and 3 bought outright. The size of a follow-on order has yet to be determined, though the planes will be purchased directly and the company may seek discounts as part of delay compensation.

Kjos, who spoke in London, said the largest Dreamliner, the 787-10, is economically attractive but doesn’t offer sufficient range. Airbus’ competing A350 has been ruled out because of the commitment to the Boeing jet, which was available first, he said.

Based on the article “Norwegian Air stays loyal to Boeing 787 for long-term growth” published in Bloomberg

Delta Air Lines prefers A330s or B777s to update the wide-body fleet, instead of considering the new B787s or the A350 XWB.

Delta Airlines is considering buying as many as 20 wide-body jets from Airbus or Boeing  with a list value of at least $4.3 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

The order under study is for 10 to 20 Airbus A330s or Boeing 777s, said the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are private. Deliveries would start within a few years, one person said. Delta already has both plane types in its fleet.

Purchasing the jets would bridge Delta’s wide-body needs until the end of the decade, when Airbus’s more efficient A350 and Boeing’s 787-10 Dreamliner will have been in service for several years and would have any kinks worked out, one person said. Delta CEO Richard Anderson has said he prefers buying established models with proven reliability, which are cheaper over the long term, even if they consume more fuel.

“Delta has the most contrarian fleet strategy in the industry,” said Richard Aboulafia, known consultant at Teal Group. “Others have exuberance for the fuel efficiency race, and Delta is saying there are other ways of getting to the same goal. And it’s working for them.”

Delta signaled earlier this month that it might consider new twin-aisle planes, when President Ed Bastian said at a JPMorgan Chase & Co. conference that the airline may find “opportunities in the marketplace selectively to add to our wide bodies.” Bastian said Delta would talk to both Airbus and Boeing.

But Delta hasn’t decided on long-term aircraft needs such as the 787 or A350. “I don’t see that there’s going to be a need for making a decision on the long-term wide-body fleet anytime soon,” Mr. Bastian said at a press briefing in London.

Based on the article “Delta Said to Study Order for $4.3 Billion in Wide-Bodies” published in Bloomberg

‘Big challenges’ of the new CEO of Spirit AeroSystems

Spirit AeroSystems has announced that Larry A. Lawson will be the new president and CEO- chief executive officer, effective 6/April.

Mr. Lawson, formerly executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics business segment, succeeds Jeff Turner, 60, who has been Spirit's CEO since the company's formation in 2005.

"Larry met all of the board's criteria. He is a well-known and highly respected leader in the industry and has outstanding experience managing multiple premier aircraft platforms efficiently and profitably across a large-scale business."

Spirit AeroSystems, the world’s biggest aerostructures supplier,  is a company in transition; the aerostructures supplier is moving from a strategy of diversification to one of simplification.

Diversification

Spirit had a strong need to expand its customer base when it formed in 2005 after Boeing sold its Wichita commercial aircraft division. In its first 2 years, Spirit grew from one customer, Boeing, adding 7 customers with new development programs, with a fair amount of complexity, he said. Airbus, Gulfstream, Sikorsky, Bombardier and Mitsubishi are the new customers all around the world.

The new programs were timed to be completed in a serial fashion. But as program schedules slid, getting the resources required to accomplish all the work became challenging.

Spirit has had various degrees of success in transitioning from a Boeing cost center to an independent business, said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group. “The company successfully transitioned from being a 100 percent Boeing shop to being a global company”, he said.

It aggressively sought and won new work in the U.S. and Europe and expanded its portfolio. “And they discovered a lot of it wasn’t costed out properly,” Aboulafia said.

“Building large aircraft structures solely for Boeing is different from independently pricing work packages and winning them”, he said.

SImplification

Now Spirit is focused on its current customers, execution and “creating value” from diversification.

Spirit’s contract for the Airbus A350 program “is a better executed contract than maybe some of the other ones,” said Anderson CFO, who watched the process unfold. “(It’s) more thoughtful. We got a lot of collaboration with Airbus as we went through the process.”

The challenge continues to be in getting costs in line on development programs that are in the early stage of design and moving into production, he said.

Today, Spirit’s biggest consumers of new program capital are the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350 XWB. This year will be one of the bigger years of “capital spend,” he said.

During 2013, 787 production is to increase to 10 a month, A350 volumes are rising and 737 production is moving up to 42 per month.

Spirit’s biggest challenges on the A350 program include engineering changes and its supply chain, Anderson said. It’s a “heavily procured” aircraft, Anderson said.

“We happen to have to go out and procure our A350 long-term contract (with suppliers) in a very busy supply chain with composite orientation on much of it,” he said.

Aboulafia said it also must reduce costs on the Airbus A350 program. 

 The new CEO must be able to improve costs on its programs in production and successfully move programs from development into production.

Based on the article “‘Big challenges’ await Jeff Turner’s replacement as CEO of Spirit AeroSystems” published in The Wichita Eagle

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/02/20/2684341/big-challenges-await-jeff-turners.html#storylink=cpy

Mtorres in the A350 XWB Program. Top innovation from Spain

MTorres is one of the top manufacturers of CFRP tape-laying &fiber placement machines. Not really known in public but a Top Company & Key Partner when you ask to anyone working on composites. They have worked its way to the top echelon of advanced CFRP manufacturing with equipment in Airbus and Boeing, and their primary Tier 1 suppliers.

AFP

“What we have begun to see is our equipment being purchased by firms further down the supply chain, including Tier 2 and perhaps even Tier 3 companies interested in supplying to the OEMs. In other words, our customer list is expanding, and concurrently so is the accessibility to the technology, such as automation. We are “spreading out” the technology” Manuel Torres –founder and CEO- said in an interview.

Product range includes ATL automatic tape layers, AFP automatic fiber placement machines, 5-axis gantry routing machines/flexible tooling, ultrasonic inspection systems, ultrasonic cutting systems, 5-axis gantry laser scribing machines/flexible tooling, assembly jigs.

ATL

 As an example and according to Airbus, the automated wing-cover production process will use more than 800 metric Tonnes of carbon fiber annually at the facility’s maximum production rate. 

Hexcel carbon fibre prepeg M21E content on each A350 XWB is worth over $4 million

In the last week´s JEC Composites show in Paris, Hexcel provided details of its work on the Airbus A350 XWB, which takes carbon composites to a new level and represents the largest contract in the company’s history, with overall revenues of between $4-5 billion.

Hexcel’s total content on each A350 XWB is now worth over $4 million and it secured the contract by developing a complete composite proposal, including carbon fibre prepreg and associated products.

The company’s experience in intermediate modulus carbon fibres was exploited to design HexTow IMA to Airbus requirements and HexPly M21E prepreg resin matrix developed to ensure that the very high performance properties in the fibre are fully optimised in the cured prepreg laminates.

One composite structure built using HexPly M21E/IMA is the rear fuselage.

To meet the increasing demand for HexTow carbon fibre, new lines have been added at the company’s PAN precursor facility in Decatur, Alabama new carbon lines commissioned in Salt Lake City, Utah and a first European carbon fibre manufacturing plant etsablished in Illescas, Spain.

Click the image to watch the video of  Hexcel @ A350 XWB

With the resin film manufactured in UK, the UD prepreg is converted at Hexcel facilities in France, Spain, Germany and the USA from where it is supplied to nearby Airbus facilities and the Tier 1s throughout Europe and the USA.

This has resulted in a highly effective supply chain model for prepreg production, resulting in shorter lead times, greater responsiveness, reduced transportation of materials, point of use delivery, less packaging, reduced inventory and less requirement for cold storage space.