The last Airbus A340-300 currently on order is undergoing testing in Toulouse ahead of delivery to an undisclosed customer - believed to be a Russian VIP. Unless Airbus secures more orders, this aircraft (MSN 955) will be the last of 246 CFM International CFM56-powered A340-200/300 “Classics” to be delivered.
The A350 XWB (extra wide-body) is Airbus’ response to market demand
for a medium capacity long range wide-body family. Available from 2012,
it will have an entirely new, uncompromised, 21st Century design with a
new and wider fuselage for extra space and passenger comfort. It will
also be extra efficient, extra environmentally friendly and quiet, as it will
feature all the advanced technologies available in the first part of the 21st
century, bringing the A380 experience to a new level. Conceived from
the outset to form a complete family of airliners, three basic passenger
versions are being offered. They include the -800, -900 and the -1000
accommodating between 250
As reported by Airbus, the new A350XWB model will be 12.5 centimeters
wider than the previous draft and carry 314 passengers. It will also make
extensive use of carbon-fibre composites and fuel-efficient engines.
Airbus intends to begin development in October, and the plane is
expected to enter service by mid 2012.
Airbus will expand its offering of two new mid-sized planes to three in order to catch up with surging rival Boeing Co., industry sources said on Friday. Worried
that its pair of proposed A350 models aimed at competing with the Boeing 787 due in 2008 will do little to slow sales of Boeing’s larger 777, France-based Airbus
will add a third, larger model. “They are definitely looking at doing three,” one industry source said, adding that the new planes were likely to be named the
A350-800, A350-900 and A350-1,000. There was a chance Airbus could go with the name A370, he added. A second source confirmed the story
EXECUTIVES of Europe’s aircraft manufacturer Airbus were engaged
this weekend in another crisis. They had hoped to unveil the design of
their new A370 aircraft this week on the eve of the Farnborough Air
Show. The “launch” of the new plane, which is even more critical to the
company’s future than its troubled A380 super-jumbo, had been pencilled
in for 14 July until British partner BAE Systems announced it was
triggering a full audit of the Toulouse-based European planemaker. On
Friday, the launch of the mid-sized jet was suddenly suspended to allow
new chairman Christian Streiff to “review” the troubled project, so Airbus
claimed.
European aircraft maker Airbus, which faces delays to production of the
A380 super-jumbo, may also be forced to delay the launch of its long-haul
A350 jet, London’s Times newspaper said Friday.The new setback was
because Christian Streiff, expected to be confirmed as the new Airbus
chief executive, needed time to approve the venture, the newspaper said
citing sources close to EADS, which owns 80 percent of Airbus.The
group has been busy redesigning its A350 model, a new mid-sized airliner
that has been poorly received by potential clients.According to The
Times, sources close to the European Aeronautics Defence and Space
Company have warned that Streiff may not make a decision
During a national televised interview in June 2006, French President Jacques Chirac mentioned the A370, about which he had probably been briefed by his
staffers.
Since the A370 is little known yet outside of aerospace circles, pundits and political opponents wrongly scoffed this reference to the A370, which they didn’t
know
of, and quoted it as another example of the President being out of touch with reality. (via Main Page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
General Electric yesterday estimated it could cost the company up to $1
billion to design a new engine to power the potential next iteration of the
Airbus A350, and the company is still weighing whether it wants to make
the significant investment. GE-Aviation CEO Scott Donnelly said on the
sidelines of a Wings Club speech in New York that GE was in talks with
Airbus about the A350 and a possible new engine, but that no decision
had been made. He said GE “would love to be on the plane,” but he had
to weigh that desire against the large economic investment in a new
powerplant. Donnelly said the motor on the new engine would
Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 series is only engine currently offerable to
customers for revamped widebody twinjet family Airbus is trying to
convince General Electric to develop an engine that it can offer on the
revamped A350 family, which is now being proposed to potential
customers powered only by versions of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000
engine. Airbus is declining to confirm details of its studies into the revised
family ahead of next month’s Farnborough air show, at which time it
hopes to “clear up the confusion” surrounding the status of the new
twinjet, says the company’s chief operating officer customers John
Leahy. However, he tells Flight International that Airbus is “a little
disappointed with GE’s response” to
Boeing won its first order for a passenger version of the company’s new
stretched 747-8 jumbo jet. The customer wasn’t identified. The order for
the 747-8 Intercontinental, as the passenger version is known, also
represents the first passenger 747 to be ordered since 2002. Boeing’s 61-
jet backlog of unfilled 747 orders included only five passenger versions of
the plane at the end of May, according to the company’s Web site. The
order was one of three for 747s Boeing said it won last week from
unidentified customers. Demand for cargo planes is being driven by
Internet commerce and improving economies worldwide. Jeff Peace, who
heads the 747-8 program, said June
