Aircraft manufacturer Airbus, already struggling with delays to its A380 superjumbo, now faces problems with its A350 long-range widebody aircraft due to customer dissatisfaction with the current design.| A tube with wings. Can it be that hard? |
The customers have called on Airbus to modify its design of the fuselage by baking the body, made out of carbon-fiber composites, on a huge mold, as Boeing does with its 787 Dreamliner, instead of riveting sections together. The current design's use of separate sections increases the maintenance costs, the airlines argue. To be able to burn the entire fuselage in giant ovens -- called autoclaves -- Airbus would have to invest in new technology and infrastructure, the newspaper reports.
However, an Airbus spokeswoman rejected the reports of a design rethink. "We are working on the basis of the existing designs," she told the Süddeutsche Zeitung, adding that everything else was pure speculation. She also dismissed reports that Airbus is planning to announce a new change of strategy during the Le Bourget airshow in France in mid June.
The development costs for the A350 have already doubled to more than €10 billion. Originally the company had only wanted to upgrade its Airbus A330 jets, but when customers were unimpressed and demanded a wider body, it went back to the drawing board and came up with the Airbus A350 XWB. Even based on the existing plans, the new A350 model won't be ready until 2013, a good five years later than Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. Not surprisingly the US aircraft manufacturer has received a considerably higher number of orders for the 787 than Airbus has for its A350.