Kuwait Airways signs for 10 A350-900.

Kuwait Airways, the National airline of Kuwait, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to buy 10 A350-900 and 15 A320neo Family aircraft. The order is part of Kuwait Airways’ fleet renewal strategy. The carrier already operates 3 A320, 3 A310, 5 A300 and 4 A340 Family aircraft.

“The Airbus Family is the ideal choice for an airline like ours,” said Kuwait Airways acting Chairman Mr Jassar Al Jassar. “The A350-900 will strengthen our long haul route development. These aircraft are an essential part of our ambitious growth plans.”

“It’s great to see our long-standing customer Kuwait Airways, building its future with our newest, most efficient aircraft families,” said John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer, Customers.

Kuwait Airways' fleet renewal has been a drawn-out process, interrupted by the government's efforts to privatize the airline.

It had previously intended to take a batch of Boeing 787s as well as a number of A320s under a modernization program.




Based on the press release “Kuwait Airways to buy ten A350-900 and fifteen A320neo Family aircraft” and on the article “Kuwait Airways signs for A350 and A320neo” published in Flight Global.

Nathalie Ducombeau, Head of Quality at Airbus and previously Head of Operations for A350 XWB, received the “La Tribune Women’s Award” in the “Woman Manager of the Year” category.

This year “La Tribune Women’s Awards” brought together 23 women entrepreneurs from the Midi-Pyrénées region, nominated in eight different categories. The “Woman Manager of the Year” category rewards a woman who heads a department or company and manages teams, contributing every day to the success of the company, its strategy and results; while integrating into her daily activities a culture of gender equality and diversity in general.

After joining Airbus in 2008 as Head of Aerostructures for the A400M program, Nathalie Ducombeau was appointed Head of Quality at Airbus in October 2012. As such, Nathalie is responsible for determining and deploying the Quality Management System, along with its standards, procedures and tools. She is also responsible for all the employees who contribute to Quality in the programs and functions. Her previous positions at Airbus include heading up the improvement of industrial performance for the A380, A400M and A350 XWB, and later on, steering the production start-up for the A350 XWB.

“I welcome Nathalie Ducombeau’s nomination as Woman Manager of the Year. Nathalie is an example of success and she highlights the fact that women can also build their careers in an industrial sector that is no longer the preserve of men. We are keen to attract a greater number of women into our workforce. It’s not a question of meeting quotas, but rather of achieving a more balanced participation of women at every level of the company, because this diversity is a source of wealth, success and performance,” explained Thierry Baril, Chief Human Resources Officer of EADS and Airbus. “Offering equal opportunities is an essential factor in our company culture,” he added.





Based on the article “Nathalie Ducombeau (Airbus) élue « Femme Manager de l’année »” published in La Tribune.

Bregier: “I prefer to have orders that I can deliver in the coming years than orders I can deliver after 2020.”

Despite Boeing taking the top honours at last month’s Dubai Airshow, scoring $101.5bn worth of orders compared to Airbus’s $40.4bn, the head of the European giant has claimed that his firm is in a far better position to deliver on its promises.

Airbus’ haul from the industry event included an order for 50 A380 superjumbo aircraft from Emirates, as well as another order 50 A350 jets from Etihad.

Boeing, meanwhile, secured 259 orders and commitments for its 777X, which is not expected to enter service until the end of the decade.
“The biggest decision for me is Emirates taking another 50 A380s,” said Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier. “Having said that with this additional order we have probably got four years’ backlog, with around 25-30 aircraft to be delivered per year, which is excellent visibility.”

“It confirms that their growth model is based around the A380 and when you compare that with Boeing, Boeing has announced big orders or intentions to order a new product which doesn’t exist and [which] they claim will enter service in 2020.
Airbus’ next big launch is the introduction of the A350, with the first set to be delivered to Qatar Airways in the second half of 2014. The firm will be hoping to avoid the troubles faced by Boeing’s 787, which had a hugely delayed launch and then suffered from a series of problems that led to the worldwide fleet being grounded for 4 months.

 
“I am confident that within, let’s say, a year, we will be able to enter service to deliver the aircraft to Qatar Airways and to ramp up production,” Bregier said last November.



Based on the article “Airbus chief in dig at Boeing over 777X timeframe” published in Arabian Business

A350 VMU test: finding the slowest safe speed for take-off . “We brought several tail bumpers but we only needed one to do all of tests.” Video

click the image to watch the video

Velocity Minimum Unstick (VMU) test, it´s a critical test for aircraft certification. What it does is measure the slowest safe speed an aircraft can go and still achieve take-off, or “unstick” itself from the runway.

 

Prior to the test, a metallic “tail bumper” was attached to the bottom of the aircraft, towards the rear. This prevents damage as the angle of take-off would otherwise cause the fuselage to drag along the runway.

The test crew found the needed calm conditions at a little-used airport outside Paris on 28/September. Going as slow as 130knots (about 250km/h- the flight crew made 12 test runs over the course of 3 and a half hours.

click the image to watch the video

 
Teamwork.

Hugues Van Der Stichel sat in the right-hand seat of the cockpit and was responsible for controlling the aircraft´s pitch or angle of attack.

Frank Chapman sat in the left-hand seat and was responsible for controlling the aircraft´s roll, it´s side to side motion.

Pascal Verneau test engineer worked the thrust control.

Philippe Séve was responsible for the test preparation and was monitoring flight test instrumentation data for the tail bumper.

They performed the test 12 time because they used 4 different settings for the wing flaps and then had 3 different speeds for each flap setting. “With the higher speeds, we had less time to stabilize the pitch”, said Hugues. “But the lower speeds were a bigger challenge because there wasn´t uch runway left if something went wrong.”

click the image to watch the video

A350 XWB and the South African connection

The South African company, Aerosud supplies critically important parts for the A350 XWB; the frame clips for the centre fuselage of the aircraft and the track cans for the wings.

• The frame clips are Class 1 structural composite parts and secure the fuselage skin panels to the fuselage structural framework.

• The track cans – there are several on each wing – house the drive mechanisms for the leading edge slats, which are a movable part of the wing.

“The A350 program is very important for Aerosud,” Dr Paul Potgieter, Aerosud group MD said. “The A350 contracts weren’t achieved or obtained on the back of offset agreements or country-level partnership agreements. Fundamentally, the roots of this were not developed through industrial participation. We’re moving beyond that. Industrial participation can be a lever, a means to fast-track, but not a necessity for us, to participate in the global aerospace market.”

“We got the track cans contract on the back of our previous experience,” he explained. “We do all the track cans for the Airbus A320.”

The frame clips contract is the result of Aerosud’s concentration, over the last 6 years, on developing expertise in composites and, in particular, the manufacturing of parts from continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastics (CFRTP), which are lighter than other composites. In this endeavour, Aerosud received support and some funding from the Department of Science and Technology, under the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy. “We now have intellectual property (IP) on composites. Airbus has recognized our uniqueness in this.” (

Aerosud designed and set up its first CFRTP parts production press in 2010 (a prototype press was developed in 2007) and the company is currently one of only a handful in the world that can supply CFRTP components. On the A350 program, Aerosud is classified as a Tier 2 supplier. That is, it does not supply its products directly to Airbus but to Spirit AeroSystems, which is a Tier 1 supplier to Airbus.

Frame clips are not simple products. Those placed in different locations have different shapes and sizes, but all have the same curvature – the curvature of the fuselage diameter. Aerosud produces more than 470 types of frame clips for the A350. Each aircraft contains just over 1000 frame clips. The company is currently making some 1800 frame clips a month, a figure that will increase to 9000 a month by 2016, as production of the new airliner ramps up to steady state.

Selection of composite frame clips currently produced by Aerosud: 1 - Window frame clips, 2 - Single bend clips, 3 - Z-shape clip, 4 - Stabilizer, 5 - Joggled clip

Aerosud continues to develop its CFRTP capabilities; earlier this year, it commissioned its new CFRTP press. Designed by Aerosud (with the heavy steel castings manufactured inChina by HZM Heavy Engineering), this is the world’s biggest industrialized CFRTP press. It weighs some 70tonnes and will be able to produce CFRTP parts as big as 2.5 m × 1.5 m.



Based on the article “New-generation Airbus incorporates key components made in South Africa” published in Engineering news

Airbus will do an “extreme vigilance” among the suppliers in the beginning of the series production of A350 in 2014.

The A350 program is in full rise. Didier Evrard, Head of Program points out that the beginning of the series production in 2014 requires extreme vigilance. In particular among the suppliers.


The head of the A350 Program Didier Evrard estimated that the program will soon arrive "in a delicate phase because, while production rises in cadence, flight tests and therefore development are not completed." Therefore we have to manage the risks of definition changes that might affect the aircraft in production and be very quick and reactive".

"We are in the phase of flight testing and we have already done more than 600 hours of flights, explains Didier Evrard. On the side of production, we are still in the start-up phase and the rate is for the moment of a unit per month. This phase will end mid 2014 and need therefore to ensure the rise of production rates and achieve a reliable series production". He said that by the end of 2014 the production rate will be close to 3 aircraft per month.


"The production of an aircraft is the problem of resource-planning", summarized Didier Evrard. Considering also that during the ramp-up of the production, many developments related to the design of the parts must be taken into account.

The critical point: the supply chain and its multiple suppliers. There are nearly 400 Tier 1 and 2 for the A350 XWB. To ensure this ramp up. Airbus has implemented a battery of 4 indicators that allow to know the level of reliability of suppliers. They are related to the management, engineering, the quality of production processes and the supply chain.

Additionally Airbus has also set up a team of 50 people responsible for the smooth running of the process within the suppliers. "Those Tier 2 are the most sensitive to monitor by Airbus”, said the Head of the program. We required to the Tier1s to ensure that their own suppliers of rank 1 are ready for the ramp-up".

What happens in case of defaults? The team will implement a “transformation plan”: "they travel to the supplier to ensure training and the support addressing and anticipating the issues", said Didier Evrard. This was held with Spirit. 'We had to put in place 10 transformation plans,' added Didier Evrard.


Based on the article “Pour le patron de l’Airbus A350, "le programme entre dans une phase délicate" published in L´Usine Novelle

Emirates sees no conflict in operating the A350-1000 and 777X alongside the A380. Gaining confidence that the A350 will meet their expectations.

Emirates is gaining confidence that the Airbus A350 will meet the airline’s expectations, after being encouraged by the state of the test-flight program.

The airline’s president, Tim Clark, admits the “difficult birth” of the Airbus A380 and the development of the A340 had left him skeptical over early claims for the A350.

“I’m a bit fed up with things being promised but not delivered,” he says.

But he says the apparent reliability of the A350 test fleet in meeting the flying demands of the certification program indicates good progress.

Clark says the indications he has received from Airbus point to the A350-900 “excelling” in its performance.

The airline has 50 A350-900s on order as well as 20 A350-1000s.

While he had expressed concern over the A350-1000 following its design revamp in 2011, he says the friction lay not with the aircraft but changes that had taken place “without our consent”.
But while the airline had been concerned over weight and thrust, Emirates had agreed to wait for the initial flight-test results from the A350 program.

While Emirates has committed heavily to the Boeing 777X, Clark says the airline is “not trading the -1000s in” as part of its increased orders for the A380.”

He adds that Emirates sees no conflict in operating the A350-1000 and 777X alongside the A380, “because we’re creatures of size and scale”.



Based on the article “DUBAI: Emirates encouraged by smooth A350 tests” published in Flight International