The launch of Airbuss new A350 plane has been put back to the second half of 2014, the manufacturers parent company, EADS, announced on July 27. The new widebody carrier had initially been scheduled to come into service in mid-2013, a target that subsequently slipped to the first half of 2014.
EADS said the latest delay, which it blamed on problems with the manufacturing process for the wings, would amount to around three months and has estimated the cost at 124 million euros ($151 million), which it took as a charge against earnings for the first half of the year.
The A350 is being launched as a rival to Boeings Dreamliner in the market for mid-sized carriers where demand, particularly in emerging markets, remains strong. The problems with the manufacture of the A350 wings follow the emergence of cracks in the wings of several of Airbuss A380 superjumbos. EADS chief executive Tom Enders said he expected deliveries of A380s next year to be less than the 30 that the company had been anticipating as a result of airlines putting orders on hold.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/28/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11138 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The A350 wing problems are due to late delivery of the parts and programming problems with the CNC machines for the actual drilling. So the wings will be drilled by hand. There is also internal issues with the -900 and -1000 variants; the -1000 is bigger and has a better payload, so several customers are switching their -900 orders for the -1000; and that complicates the manufacturing sequencing ( diferent parts from suppliers, tooling needs, etc). The A380 wing issues are completely different.
#2
It appears to me one of the problems is moving the danged thing from plant to plant, as Europe is not as easily open to ground transplant as say the high plains. And also, that part of the inclusiveness requires multiple nations to be involved so the wallpaper is pretty.
I'm not saying Airbus in incapable of producing an air frame, though I did about puke on some gawdaweful dangling fusilage design from DIA to ICT, but I do think there is good reason for their investment in USA facilities where it doesn't have to be dutchied to the left hand side every other chapter.
#3
Agree, the recent news to move all single aisle build to Mobile, Alabama has quite a few Pac NW knickers in a serious twist. Competition has moved into home field territory AND the games will begin for skilled workers. Having talked to a few of their A380 engineers ( also based in Mobile) they are quite happy with their lot in life.
It will also bring down the cost of us shipping our products, soon they will just be trucked south, instead of ocean/air and all the customs/duty crap.
#5
Affter watching that hour long documentary styled infomercial starring travolta, it would not surprise me if there was a position which translated German metric to French metric to Italian metric to Spanish metric.
With 30 hour weeks and month vacation, likely by the time they sluth the problem the clock is up, then have to get back into it next work day.
#6
Still need to translate, Snowy. Airbus designs in Catia V5, most CNC machines run in a UNIX or IGES format, so the translation needs verified, and then you have to manually enter your insertion ( starting points) and do all the repositioning stuff, all manual. and its a safe bet that the first aircraft are all hand built anyway so there will be a lot of variance that negates the CNC speed and repeatability.
and don't get me started on Boeing's Digital Product program.....
A Swedish national of Lebanese descent placed in long-term storage Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! in Cyprus on suspicion of plotting to attack Israeli tourists in the country will stand trial on Sept. 12, authorities said on Friday.
The man, who has not been identified, faces nine charges of security-related offenses related to tracking the movements and areas frequented by Israeli visitors to the holiday island. He was placed in long-term storage Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! on July 7 as a suspected security threat.
Israel has said the man was planning an attack similar to a suicide bus bombing in the Bulgarian city of Burgas on July 18 that killed seven people, five of them Israelis. Israel has blamed the attack on Lebanese Shiite Mohammedan Death Eater group Hezbollah, and Iran, which has denied any involvement.
Cypriot authorities have acknowledged the suspect showed behavioral patterns similar to the incident in Burgas, in which the attacker waited for Israeli holidaymakers to board a bus at an airport before detonating a backpack of explosives.
During court hearings held behind closed doors, police have maintained the Cyprus suspect is a member of Hezbollah. The group is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and other countries, but not by Cyprus.
The suspect was cooled for a few years Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! two days after his arrival to Cyprus via London, following a tip-off from British intelligence services. In his fourth court appearance since his detention, a district court in the southern coastal city of Limassol on Friday ruled the man would remain in jug until his trial in September, the semi-official Cyprus News Agency reported.
At that hearing, before a criminal court, he will be formally charged and enter a plea.
Israel is less than an hour by air away from Cyprus and thousands of Israelis visit each year. It is also a popular destination for couples getting married.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The launch of Airbuss new A350 plane has been put back to the second half of 2014, the manufacturers parent company, EADS, announced on July 27. The new widebody carrier had initially been scheduled to come into service in mid-2013, a target that subsequently slipped to the first half of 2014.
