Airbus product development

I do not think that Airbus is in a position to launch any major new program before completing development of the A350-900 and the NEO family. So, I expect no major initiative in the 2013/2015 time span.

In the following few years(2015/2017), however, Airbus should enjoy a quickly improving financial situation, with fast-growing sales and margins (with a new flow of NEO and A350-900 deliveries, A380 reaching break-even, A330 still selling well ...). The financial burden, left over from developments costs (A380, A350) and industrial investments (new FAL in several locations including Alabama ...)should quickly decrease, giving Airbus more leeway to consider developping new products after completing the A350-1000. Therefore, Airbus can be expected to take some risks.

The A350-800, if it is still on the drawing board then, may be redesigned to be made more competitive, even at a higher development cost. Like Baroque, I do not believe Airbus should or would launch an A330 NEO : it will be too late at that time to invest in such a classical design.

Other A350 derivatives could be considered. The main question - but not the only one - is that of a possible double stretch to challenge the 777X-9. I do not know whether the idea makes sense or not.

An updated A380 seems an obvious choice, of course with new engines and a fuselage extension, maybe also with a new effort to shed some weight.

A clean-sheet narrowbody may come sooner than expected if Boeing is dissatisfied with the MAX market share and decides to speed up the design of a substitute.

An interview with Fabrice Bregier by Aviationweek.

Airbus CEO Talks About Highs And Lows Of Market

Lots of good points mentioned. But I'll pull out this...




Me - Iiiiiiiiiinteresting!

Compare it to the finalness in tone in this statement...



Given how Airbus has been adopting an increasingly conservative tone these days, I wouldn't be surprised if they are actually working on something behind the scenes without revealing too much. And I'm sure there are a few people in Seattle who too would be thinking along these lines...probably feeling a bit annoyed at Airbus too for this.

Some interesting progress in electric aircraft taxiing.

Honeywell and Safran demonstrate electric green taxiing system on Airbus A320

- Honeywell and Safran, having completed the first major phase of testing of their electric green taxiing system (EGTS), are publicly demonstrating the technology for the first time, installed on an Airbus A320 aircraft, at the 50th International Paris Air Show held at Le Bourget Airport.

- EGTS can cut fuel consumption by up to four percent per flight cycle.

- will reduce engine and brake wear and minimize the risk of engine FOD

- EGTS fitted to it (aircraft) has logged close to 160 kilometers (100 miles) of rolling tests. 3000 hours of testing done in total on and off the aircraft.

- The next major milestone will be to conduct various maneuvers at speeds up to 20 knots, at full performance and with the aircraft at maximum take-off weight (MTOW).

- In addition to faster push-back times, being fully autonomous with its reverse mode, the system is very smooth and so easy to operate, enabling the plane to accelerate without any delay, and move at a steady rate,” says Jens Berlinson, test pilot, Safran. “With EGTS we no longer need to use the brakes unlike with today's aircraft that have a tendency to accelerate naturally even when the engines are at idle.

It seems that both A and B are struggling to sell their quadjets. DO you think it would be possible to make a twinjet version of the A380? I know each engine would have to produce ~150,000 lb of thrust each but do you think it could be done?