Airbus A350 Completes Milestone 5 Review
Jan 2, 2009
By Robert Wall
Airbus is entering a new phase in the development of the A350XWB twin-widebody, but some unresolved issues are causing outside observers to question the program plans' firmness.
The A350 program was recently subjected to a far-reaching internal Airbus review, which the aircraft maker calls Milestone 5. It amounts to a detailed definition freeze for the A350, and shifts the engineering focus to parts design and the start of component production.
Airbus isn't discussing what adjustments it may have made to original plans, saying it must brief airline customers first. Like most aircraft programs, the A350XWB has evolved continuously since its 2006 rollout, after earlier attempts to devise a competitor to the Boeing 787 failed to gain market acceptance. Before the December meeting, Airbus CEO Tom Enders characterized the event as a "major review" in which a range of matters, such as weight status, schedule and ramp-up rates, will be scrutinized.
An Airbus official says "the review confirmed that the program can now go ahead with further specific design work." The review focused primarily on the A350-900, the first in the widebody family to come to market, and the milestone has greater importance for it than those coming in the next two years for the -800 and -1000. The A350-900 remains slated for entry into service in 2013, the Airbus official says.
An executive with a supplier working on the A350 says Airbus is eager to maintain the 2013 date and is even looking to see if there are opportunities to get the aircraft out earlier, in part to take advantage of Boeing's problems with the 787. Boeing had a big market lead on the A350, but has lost more than two years of that owing to 787 development and production problems.
Others, however, are skeptical Airbus can even meet the advertised 2013 target. Officials within the A350 supply chain and financial community don't expect the aircraft to come to market until at least 2015, says Doug McVitie, managing director of consultancy Arran Aerospace.
"Given the [Boeing] 787 experience and Airbus's A380 and A400M resource drain, it would be a tremendous achievement if [entry-into-service] was in 2014," adds Richard Aboulafia, vice president at the Teal Group. "Our forecast is 2015."
McVitie believes Airbus is confronting financing problems for the A350. Even though Airbus-parent EADS has a healthy cash balance, airline customers need delivery financing in the coming years and that could be a drag on available resources. Moreover, he notes that the failure to unload production facilities in France and Germany means EADS has to foot more of the A350 development bill than initially planned.
Further complicating financing discussions is a potential World Trade Organization ruling on the U.S.-European Union battle over alleged large commercial aircraft subsidies. European industry officials have signaled they are looking for alternative government support schemes that could be WTO-compliant, but they insist the European case against the U.S. is strong.
McVitie also questions whether Airbus has fully frozen the A350 design, as it says it has. "They are not there" and some design decisions are likely going to stretch well into this year, he expects.
As part of the process to validate the A350 design approach, Airbus is working on several structural demonstrators. One, the Barrel 1A, is the first fuselage cross-section demonstrator for the aircraft. It is giving Airbus some experience with the composite panel fuselage construction approach, which differs from Boeing's single-barrel fuselage section design concept. Barrel 1A will undergo electrical systems network testing this year. The coming months should also see the addition of an 18-meter (33-ft.) -long Barrel 1B demonstrator, with composite frames on a composite substructure, and a door to gain further information during dynamic fatigue tests.
Final wind tunnel checkout of the aerodynamic configuration is also slated to be completed in the late summer. Airbus has several thousand hours of wind tunnel time on the A350XWB from more than a year of trials.
Like most development programs, the A350 is struggling with weight growth, as well. The design remains above its target weight, industry officials indicate.
Airbus has largely completed supplier selections, with almost all major systems assigned. Nevertheless, there is still some workshare allocation to be done. Alenia Aeronautica, for instance, is looking to secure A350 subcontracts. Enders indicates the Italians will likely get some work, although it is expected to be far below what Alenia initially targeted. How much work Russian industry will win is also undetermined. The global economic crisis has hit Russia particularly hard, so the extent to which companies there can shoulder the financing burden of a major new program is uncertain.
Meanwhile, Airbus is moving ahead with industrial preparations. Tooling to start building the A350 was ordered several months ago, and the aircraft maker plans to break ground on the final assembly facility at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse on Jan. 14.
