“A first flight by Paris would bring a huge credibility boost for Airbus”

Airbus teams in the FAL and in the Flight Test Dept. are working hard to get the A350 XWB off the ground in time to scoop the headlines at next Paris air show.

A flight around the year’s biggest aviation expo, starting June 17, would let Airbus steal the limelight from Boeing, which aims to use the event to spur orders for an updated 777 and revitalize the 787 program hit by a months-long grounding.

“A first flight by Paris would bring a huge credibility boost for Airbus just as people are having doubts about Boeing’s execution,” according to Richard Aboulafia, vice president of U.S.-based Teal Group, who says the 787’s woes and slow progress with the 777 revamp give Airbus a “window of opportunity.”

 

Gilles Fournier, managing director for the Paris air show, told journalists last month he expects the A350 to fly by the start of the event, though there are no firm plans for a visit.

An A350 flight by mid-June could have a snowball effect for Airbus, building sales momentum for the A350-1000 variant due to begin deliveries in 2017, even as Boeing seeks to drum up orders for the competing 777X, according to Teal Group’s Aboulafia.

Based on the article “Airbus A350’s Paint Job Points to Paris-Show Blow for Boeing” published in Bloomberg

As usual, Boeing and Airbus “prepare” the summer Air Shows in the media. This year with the wide-body aircraft market.

Boeing and Airbus, which share a duopoly in the market for large commercial jets, have been known to trade the occasional jibe about their products and strategy, accusing each other of making misleading claims about their planes’ performance.

Airbus had struck a more supportive note during the three-month grounding of the Dreamliner, only to resume a more aggressive stance as the A350’s maiden flight approaches in coming weeks.

  

Boeing CEO Jim McNerney said last week at an investor conference that Airbus doesn’t “have an airframe that can compete” with the 777X, the upgraded version of Boeing’s biggest twin-engine plane, “They don’t have the appetite to do a ground-up airplane, and they’d have to do a ground-up airplane.” He wanted to point out that Airbus doesn't have a competing airplane to the 777-9X (a derivative of the 777).

 

“It’ll take another 5, 6 or 7 years before they can respond to this airplane. We’re way ahead of them and it’s going to be fun. We’ve got them boxed in on the A350 at the top (with 777X) and we’ve got them boxed in at the bottom with 787.”

The answer from Airbus came with Tom Enders (EADS CEO and ex-Airbus CEO) when he told investors at the annual shareholders meeting that “the A350 XWB a real aircraft.”  

 

“The aircraft we rolled out a couple of weeks ago didn’t have rivets from Wal-Mart, like the ones our competitors had at the time off their roll-out,”

Enders’s comment was directed specifically at the plane that Boeing presented publicly on July 8, 2007, timed to coincide with the plane’s name -- 787. The first 787 to actually fly didn’t come until 1 1/2 years later.

 

Fabrice Bregier, the Airbus CEO who succeeded Enders, kept the roll-out to a low-key event reserved only for employees. The humble ceremony compared with Boeing’s jubilant unveiling of the 787 Dreamliner in 2007, an event hosted by former television news anchor Tom Brokaw before 15,000 people and broadcast live by satellite.

Based on the article “Airbus Accused of Gutless Models Hits Back at Boeing 787 Parts” published in Bloomberg

A350-1000 needed earlier and with higher rate than previously planned. But it is a bit small.

News from EADS that it is beginning to consider another Airbus A350 assembly line, or ramping up production more quickly than currently planned, to accommodate increasing demand for the A350-1000 validates a desire expressed months ago by John Leahy, COO of Customers for Airbus, that he could see more -1000s if he had the capacity to build them.

 

Delivery slots for the A350 are essentially sold out to 2020. Orders for the -1000 stalled in part because of this, in part because Airbus tweaked the design, in part because Boeing engaged in an effective campaign to cast doubt over the model and in part because Tim Clark of Emirates Airlines and Akbar Al-Baker of Qatar Airways can’t resist negotiating in the press to pressure Airbus to do more.

Leeham News believe the A350-1000, at 350 passengers, is a bit small. It compares with the 365 passengers in the Boeing 777-300ER. “We felt from the start that Airbus should have had at least 30 more passengers.” But the A350-1000 threatens the -300ER. Airbus claims the -1000 will have 25% lower trip costs; even Boeing’s own presentations grant the -1000 about 20% lower trip costs.

 

With Boeing planning a 350-passenger 777-8X and a 406 passenger 777-9X, “the need for a larger A350-1100 becomes acute” identifies Leeham News. Boeing has had the monopoly with the 777-300ER, which will be broken by the -1000. The 9X will retain a monopoly; Airbus, to be fully competitive, needs to match this size.

This will mean a new wing and larger engines, of course, no small investment. There is already a huge gap between the A350-1000 and the A380. The 777-9X, which will be more efficient than the 747-8 (and which will kill the dying 748), will eat into the A380 demand. So will an A350-1100, but better to do so from within than to see your competitor take the sales.

Based on the article “Assessing the A350 program” published by Leeham News

The Roadmap of the Flight-Test Team before the First Flight of the A350 XWB

The first steps, already completed, were to turn on the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) and check circuits & aircraft systems, one by one (including the air-conditioning system) under APU power.

 

The second step, already done was to start the R-R Trent XWB engines one after the other, again briefly at first, to detect any oil or fuel leaks.

During following days, hydraulics and other systems will be run with the engines on. The "bleed air" will be test. This is a traditional conduit of air from the engines used for cabin pressurization and de-icing.

Lufthansa´s A380 in the engine test cell

After that, test-engineers will progressively squeeze power out of the engines with brakes on. This is done in a "run-up" area, like a concrete paddock, called “BIKINI” engine test cell at Airbus Saint-Martin site in Toulouse.

In parallel, the aircraft has started to move under its own power, slowly at first, and then up to 60 knots (111 km/h).

Click the picture to see the video of slow-speed taxi

The plane's pre-flight workout end when the six pilots and flight engineers on orange jumpsuits, parachutes and life-vests for a rehearsal, pushing the plane close to its take-off speed. After that last test, ground mechanics will carry out a thorough two-day inspection.

Based on the article “Factbox: Countdown to A350 first flight” published in Reuters

White smoke on the MSN001 engines power up for the first time; "Habemus aeroplanum".

Rolls-Royce’s Trent XWB engines have run for the first time on the A350 XWB (MSN001) following the start-up of the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), as part of the preparations for the aircraft’s maiden flight.

click on the picture to see the video

The Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) (the small turbine engine under the tail) is used for power on the ground. The start-up test of last week consisted on checking if the APU leaked of oil or fuel, and after that, run the air-conditioning and other aircraft systems and circuits.

 

Rolls-Royce has planned to make 16 flight-compliance engines for the flight test campaign; 10 will be dedicated to A350 flight-testing. One (called Engine 21001) is a “training” engine used to prove tooling and train the assy-fitters, 3 will be spares, and a further 2 will be built for contingencies.

 

Trent XWB engine is the largest yet produced by Rolls-Royce, with a 3m fan diameter and blades 76mm longer than in the A380's Trent 900. It was certified by EASA (European regulators) in February/2013 and it is the result of the work of a big team involving 75 suppliers worldwide, 16 Rolls-Royce plants, 12 partners and 25 dual sources. A team currently working in the engine for the A350-1000.

Based on the press release “First A350 XWB’s engines powered up” by Airbus.

The final assembly in the FAL of the MSN002, the 3rd A350 cabin flight-test prototype, will start next week.

The Final Assembly starts with the arrival of the 21m. section 11/14 by a Beluga from the Airbus' Saint Nazaire plant. This forward fuselage section is assembled at St-Nazaire plant, by joining-up two pre-equipped fuselage sub-sections: section 11/12 the French nose fuselage built by Aerolia (France) and assembled and equipped with its systems by Airbus in St-Nazaire. And the section 13/14 German forward fuselage, built by Premium Aerotec (Germany) and equipped by Airbus in Hamburg (Germany). The post join-up system installation is done at St-Nazaire. 

The forward section will be mated with the centre (section 15/21) and aft fuselage (section 16/18) in June.

The Horizontal Stabilizer, already finished in Spain, is being shipped to the FAL as well as the Vertical Stabilizer (from Germany) that is at Toulouse since some weeks ago.

The VTP for MSN002 in Toulouse already painted

The MSN002 is the third A350 to fly and will have a cabin installed. The operational testing on the cabin will be the focus on this aircraft.

But the maturity level of the cabin is high due to the MSN5011 “Cabin zero” in Hamburg where all cabin-related system functions have been tested on 15 benches plus a physical mockup.  Airbus built this 'physical mock-up' of A350 XWB fuselage to avoid A380 mistakes. "The cabin can be linked to functional system integration benches, such as the air system - to look at air distribution - or the IFE system."

In parallel in Toulouse, the “aircraft zero” has been used to test all flight systems since months ago.

Airbus believes that doing this could save between 25%-30% of the flight test time. "The DMU is a fantastic tool, but the lesson learned from the A380 was that we needed to go further to anticipate system installation problems," says A350 program manager Didier Evrard. "This was a large burden we carried on the A380 program and this is why we've built this physical mock-up."

 

 

Cabin zero is fully furnished with seats, lining and monuments in a layout based on the arrangement of the A350 cabin flight-test aircraft MSN002.

Another lesson learnt from A380 has been applied in Airbus, which has taken a conservative approach in developing the A350 to avoid the pitfalls of previous projects.

Buyers have been given a strict list of cabin options, after unlimited choice on the A380 led to complex wiring that caused delays.

MSN001 hand over to the Flight Test Team done.

A350 first flying prototype MSN001 has been transferred to the Airbus' flight-test team, although a date for a maiden sortie has yet to be established.

“The airframer declines to confirm the move, or comment on the status of the aircraft's progress since its roll-out on 13 May.”

“A source familiar with the A350's test programme says that the transfer of MSN1 to the flight-test team has taken place.”

Tests to be done before the aircraft gets airborne include running engines through controlled cycles, taxiing at low and high speeds, and a a so-called rejected takeoff at high velocity to check that brakes, spoilers and thrust reversers all work properly to bring the aircraft to a controlled standstill.

“The source could not give an estimate of the time the A350 might spend on ground tests before its maiden flight.”

 

Still, the remaining A350 testing schedule may not be plain sailing, with scope remaining for hitches with the plane’s electronic systems during final trials, according to Tecop International President Hans Weber, a physicist and aerospace expert who advises the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

“Software glitches are one of the biggest worries in these systems,” Weber said in an interview. “Everything on the plane is ultimately controlled by software, and it can be a lengthy effort to find a glitch and fix it.”

Based on the article “A350 prototype transfers to flight-test team” published in FlightGlobal and based on the article “Airbus A350’s Paint Job Points to Paris-Show Blow for Boeing” published in Bloomberg