Airbus will take a decision on A350-800 before summer; 12 orders cancelled.

Leasing company Aircraft Purchase Fleet has canceled an order for 12 A350-800s, the smallest version of the A350 XWB family.

APF is the special purpose company set up for Alitalia Airlines, which is a financial basket case. In this case, the -800s were not upgraded to -900s or -1000s, according to the monthly Airbus Orders and Deliveries tally.

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Airbus has been encouraging customers to opt for larger models of the twin-engine long-range airplane, including the A350-900 now in flight testing and due to enter service this year. The latest in a series of cancellations for the A350-800 shrinks the backlog for this type to only 34 aircraft, including from Hawaiian Airlines and Russia's Aeroflot.

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The A350-800 is due from 2016, although Airbus officials have said they may shift the date until the end of the decade as the company focuses on fielding larger models that also carry a higher price, including the 369-seat A350-1000 scheduled to enter service in 2017.

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Airbus could communicate the decision of going ahead with the A350-800 or with the A330neo (new engines) in Farnborough Air-show next July.

Based on the article “More A350-800 orders vanish” published in Leeham News and Comments and based on the article “Airbus Orders Hurt by Cancellations” published in The Wall Street Journal.

Qatar Airways, launch customer of the A350 XWB: "How are you, my friend?"

As we can see in this video, when Qatar CEO visited the Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Toulouse in February, Airbus CEO was waiting him. "How are you, my friend?" said Bregier.

Click in the picture to watch the video

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Mr. Akbar Al Baker visited the first series-aircraft that will be delivered to Qatar before the end of the year, the MSN6, which final assembly has started in Toulouse. 

http://www.icandy.pw/News/A350-Launch-Customer/i-T36g5tB

The flight-test prototype MSN4 with Qatar "colors" was also presented to Mr. Akbar Al Baker during his visit.

Picture: Airbus

Didier Evrard, Head of A350 Program participated in the visit giving all kind of details to the CEO of Qatar Airways, who has 80 A350´s in his orderbook. 



Based on the article "A350 XWB programme right on time !" published by Aeronewstv.

A350 cabin interior will be unveiled in Hamburg next Monday

Airbus will unveil its first A350 cabin and seats next Monday at Airbus' new Cabin Design Centre in Hamburg, where airlines with orders for the A350 will choose the fitout for their planes from tip to tail.

This 'one stop shop' facility, includes 'showrooms' for a wide range of pre-approved seating from economy to first class, galleys, toilets and cabin equipment plus cabin design studios.

Qatar will be the A350's worldwide launch customer of an orderbook that currently stands at some 38 airlines and leasing companies with 824 aircraft between them.

Hamburg is Airbus’ global cabin centre of excellence and some of the key suppliers for interior cabin are German as Diehl Aerosystems, Tier 1 and Risk Sharing Partner in the A350 program with 13 work packages.

Based on the article “Airbus to reveal first A350 seats, cabin interiors next week” published in Australian Business Traveller

Japanese titanium forging for the main landing gears of the A350

Kobe Steel and Messier-Bugatti-Dowty have agreed to a contract for Kobe Steel to supply the French company of the Safran Group with titanium forgings for the main landing gears of the Airbus A350 XWB.

The main landing gear parts will be manufactured by Kobe Steel and its group company, Japan Aeroforge Ltd., based in Kurashiki, Japan. Japan Aeroforge is a joint venture established in January 2011 by Kobe Steel and Hitachi Metals Ltd. as the 2 major shareholders, along with several other companies. Equipped with a 50,000-ton hydraulic forging press, one of the largest in the world, Japan Aeroforge manufactures large titanium forgings for the growing aerospace industry worldwide.

http://www.icandy.pw/News/A350-Launch-Customer/i-vG5rqGG/A

Kobe Steel, through the agreement with Messier-Bugatti-Dowty, will be Japan’s first supplier of large titanium forged parts.

For more than 60 years, Kobe Steel has supplied titanium forgings, sheets, and tubes to the aerospace and industrial sectors.

Based on the press release “Kobe Steel to supply forgings for A350 XWB”

A350 XWB cargo doors developed by Eurocopter- Deutschland but manufactured in Korea.

Eurocopter is in charge of all aircraft doors (passenger, service and cargo doors) of the A350 XWB, which represents a further step in the process of generating synergies and applying expertise for composite production methods between helicopter manufacturing and the design of aircraft doors in general.

 The closed 1.5 billion euro contract includes the development, production and delivery of all passenger and cargo doors for the A350 XWB.

Aircraft doors are safety critical components of an aircraft. Due to the demanding certification and safety requirements the doors contain a complex and failsafe mechanism to enable them to be operated under all circumstances. Eurocopter’s Business Centre Airplane Door Systems, based in Donauwörth, Germany, has over 20 years of proven expertise in aircraft doors for A320 family, A330 family and A380 series.

 

Technical know-how combined with an attractive commercial offer enabled Eurocopter to become partner with Korean Air Aerospace Division in the very competitive environment of aero structures.

This confirms that Eurocopter’s Center of Excellence for Airplane Door Systems is on the right track by shifting its focus from traditional metal structures to new manufacturing technologies based on composite materials.

3 doors manufacturing has been subcontracted to Korean Air Aerospace Division in South Korea. Korean Air was from the beginning a valuable partner, that demonstrated its capabilities to support this forward-looking method of production.

 

More than 150 Eurocopter engineers as well as 50 engineers and 80 Korean Air employees have been involved in the conceptual design, development and pre-production phases of this project since it was launched in 1997. An estimated budget of nearly 1.5 billion euros has been set aside to cover the total expenditure on all door systems for the planned family of A350 XWB aircraft, including work subcontracted to Korean Air in South Korea.

 

Korean Air Lines would be interested in buying a larger version of the Airbus A350 XWB, the carrier's president and chief executive said. The airline currently has no A350s on order, although it has ordered 10 787s. But Yang Ho Cho said that Korean Air might be interested in the long-range A350-1000, a stretched version of the A350-900 when it eventually becomes available. "The A350-900 is not the ideal configuration for us yet, so we are waiting for the right aircraft with the right engines, a larger one, the A350-1000," Cho said.

Cables for digital transmission in A350 are 25% lighter.

Draka Fileca is the French supplier (at Sainte-Geneviève, from the Prysmian Group) that has developed a cable for digital transmission for A350 XWB family. The cable not only had to enable high transmission rates but also had to be much lighter than the previously used KO24 type.

Star-Quad KL24 data cable is up to 25% lighter than previous types of quad cables. And this cable also complies with the requirements of EN 3375-011 for electric cables for digital data transmission in aerospace.

Charles Boullot R&D Project Leader at Draka Fileca explains: “The challenge with developing this cable was to lower the weight without reducing the diameter, because one of the customer’s specifications was compatibility with existing contacts, connectors and tools. That is why we decided to use a fluoroplastic foam type for the insulation instead of a conventional fluoroplastic.”

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The type that was finally used was DuPont™ Teflon® FFR 770, which belongs to a family of new foam grades based on DuPont’s patented Airquick technology. These products are suitable for the production of lightweight high-performance cables for high-frequency signal transmission in a wide temperature range and with minimal signal distortion.

It is being initially used in the A350 XWB and there are plans to extend in the near future to other Airbus models, in order to optimize the weight, that for instance on the A380 could be lowered by up to 85kg.

Based on the article “Lightweight data cables” published in Aircraft Interiors International

Why Japanese ANA has selected the 777-9x over the A350-1000?

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has selected Boeing's 777-9X (20 aircraft) over the Airbus A350-1000 to replace its 777-300ERs. This was regarded as a key contract for Boeing to win, following Japan Airlines' decision last year to order Airbus A350s for its own 777 replacement needs. Boeing likely offered ANA an extremely competitive price discount on the 777X in order to ensure that the order didn’t go to Airbus like at JAL.

ANA said the 777Xs will replace its 19 777-300ERs used on international routes, and will be delivered in fiscal 2021-27. ANA operates 54 777s, which comprise -200s, -200ERs and -300s. The airline plans to purchase 6 additional -300ERs to support international growth until the 777X deliveries begin. The -300ERs are due to arrive in fiscal 2018-19. ANA is also ordering 14 more 787-9s, which will bring its total 787 order to 80 aircraft, of which 44 will be -9s. The carrier has taken delivery of 27 of its 36 orders for the 787-8.

Airchive analyses the 777X order as “truly interesting”, especially seeing as rival JAL opted for the A350-1000 instead. ANA simply has more need for the larger seating capacity of the 777X than JAL for several reason; . ANA is the larger carrier with a larger overall network and moreover, ANA recently won the lion’s share of international slots at Tokyo’s airport, which better facilitates the use of the larger 777X.

Furthermore, ANA has had more of a challenge controlling its costs relative to JAL, which means that competitively, it needs the CASM boost of the 777X’s larger seating capacity.

Airchive presents an economic comparative analysis of the A350-1000 versus the Boeing 777X for a typical mission of 5,550 nm; despite the A350-1000′s optimized airframe, the seat-capacity advantage of the 777X in ANA’s typical 3 class configuration gives the 777X a 4.4% CASM advantage over the A350-1000. If, as in ANA’s case, you can fill the extra 45 seats, the 777X will be the better tool.

Based on the article “ANA Goes Shopping: Our Analysis of the Order” published in Airchive.