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Europe
Airbus delays launch of A350 aircraft again
2012-07-28
The launch of AirbusÂ’s new A350 plane has been put back to the second half of 2014, the manufacturerÂ’s 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 BoeingÂ’s 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 AirbusÂ’s 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.
Posted by:Steve White

#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.....
Posted by: USN, ret.   2012-07-28 22:15  

#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.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2012-07-28 18:56  

#4  Programming problems with the CNC machines?

I thought at the level they were operating at they'd be using computer programs to translate straight from the CAD models to the CNC instructions.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2012-07-28 15:30  

#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.
Posted by: USN, ret.   2012-07-28 10:45  

#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.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2012-07-28 09:00  

#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.
Posted by: USN, ret.   2012-07-28 00:36  

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