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Airbus says incremental development strategy is taking shape

WINGED LOGISTICS An artist’s impression of the Beluga XL outsize cargo aircraft

Photo by Airbus

RECENTLY CERTIFIED An CFM International LEAP-1A powered A320neo takes off

Photo by Airbus

RE-ENGINED, REFINED: An artist’s impression of the A330-800 version of the A330neo, clearly showing the wingtip sharklets which extend the wingspan

Photo by Airbus

TO BE DEVELOPED FURTHER An A350-900 in flight

Photo by Airbus

8th July 2016

By: Keith Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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With a comprehensive range of modern or modernised designs, European airliner manufacturer Airbus (part of the larger Airbus Group) is currently focused on the incremental improvement and further development of its existing airliner designs (as well as manufacturing processes and services, not covered in this article). “Our incremental development strategy is taking shape,” affirmed Airbus president and CEO Fabrice Brégier at his company’s recent annual Innovation Days aviation media conference.

The company is not planning a new airliner design at the moment. It is very happy with its current, and highly successful, range. “The Airbus family ranges from 100 to 600+ seats, covering short, medium and long ranges,” pointed out executive VP for strategy and marketing Kiran Rao. The A320 family (composed, from smallest to largest, of the A318, A319, A320 and A321 single-aisle airliners) can take from 100 to 240 seats; the A330 family from 250 to 300 seats; the A350 XWB family from 280 to 370 seats; and the A380 from 400 to 600+ seats. The A330, A350 and A380 are all wide-body airliners.

However, that does not mean that there is no thinking about a new design. “If there is [to be] a new plane, it will be a single-aisle [airliner],” said Airbus Germany board chairperson Klaus Richter. “For the time being, it’s rather hypothetical. Keep in mind that we have 5 000 orders in the order book for the A320 family, so there is no urgency. But there will probably be intensive discussions in the next few years about the future of single-aisle, for 2030 and after. Investment into a new single-aisle [airliner] will be above €10-billion. The improvement in technology performance needs to be really big to justify that.”

Executive VP for engineering Charles Champion explained that it was all to do with time horizons. New airliner designs would only be developed for long time horizons. For shorter time horizons, the focus was on improving the existing designs.


A Whale of a Plane

Airbus is, in fact, currently working on a new aircraft design. But it is not an airliner. It is a highly specialised cargo aircraft, designated the Beluga XL (for extra large). Airbus has its own logistics system to move major airframe components, for its various airliners, from plant to plant around Europe. This includes ships, barges and specialist air cargo aircraft – currently the Airbus Beluga. Airbus developed the Beluga (which replaced the Aerospacelines Super Guppy four-turboprop outsize cargo aircraft) from its A300 twin-jet airliner. The company built and operates five Belugas.

The Beluga XL is based on the A330 airliner and will have a 12% greater payload than the current Beluga. “This will be a great aircraft, which will increase our transportation capability,” stated executive VP for programmes Didier Evrard. Development started last year and will conclude by the end of this year or early next year, with the first conversion scheduled to start during the first quarter of 2017, followed by first flight in 2018 and entry into service in mid-2019. “It will give us more capacity to meet [production] ramp-up challenges.”

The Beluga XL project is being used by Airbus as a “laboratory” to test out new approaches and methods. It is being undertaken as a five-year programme at minimum cost, driven by one team based in one office and with greater transparency for the companies supplying the programme. It is making use of an enhanced digital mock-up (DMU) portal. “We have developed a way to digitalise the current documentation of the A330,” he reported, thereby reducing development time and cost.


Aerial Evolution

But, while Airbus may not yet have any new airliner designs under way, it is certainly reworking its well-established types, the A320 and A330. This is being done through the company’s new engine option (neo) programmes – and, of course, in the English language (the global language of aviation) neo also means new, recent or in a revived form, all of which are certainly applicable to these Airbus programmes.

The first A320 entered service nearly 30 years ago, in 1988 (for comparison, the A320’s main rival, the Boeing 737, originally entered service in 1968) and the A320neo programme was launched in 2010. The development phase has been successfully concluded and deliveries to customers are now under way. The last major step was certification of aircraft with the second of the two new engine types that can be fitted to the A320neo, the CFM International LEAP-1A, and that was obtained at the end of May. The other engine option, with which the -neo entered service in January, is the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM.

The upgraded A320 family will be composed of three models: the A319neo, the A320neo (the first to be developed) and the A321neo (the second to be developed). Market demand for the A318 is now too small to justify a -neo version. Apart from the new engines, the -neo versions are also fitted with large winglets, called sharklets by Airbus, and have undergone a number of lesser aerodynamic refinements, as well as a number of systems upgrades and replacements. Although the result has 95% airframe spares commonality with the standard A320 family (now referred to as the A320ceo), the -neo enjoys a 15% reduction in fuel consumption per seat (to increase to 20% before 2020), 14% lower cash operating costs and a 5% decrease in maintenance costs for the airframe. Range has been increased by 500 nautical miles (nm), rate of climb has been improved, yet the aircraft is 150 kg lighter than originally targeted. In comparison to previous generation airliners, the A320neo has 50% lower nitrous oxide, and 15% less carbon dioxide, emissions. The new engines also significantly reduce the aircraft’s noise emissions, resulting in a 50% cut in its noise footprint on takeoff and landing.

The result has been a great commercial success, winning 4 500 orders from 82 customers so far – a market share of 60%. The intent is that, for the next few years, A320ceos and -neos will be produced, as required, in parallel (the -ceo is still winning orders) but that, in due course, the -ceo models will be phased out and production will standardise on the -neos. However, the programme is currently suffering from a major hiccup: Pratt & Whitney is proving unable to deliver the PW1100G-JM engines at the rate required by Airbus. The company is, however, determined to meet its A320neo delivery commitments for this year, even if this means having a very busy December!

Separate from, but parallel to, the major -neo programme, the A320 family has been subject to a continuous series of incremental improvements. Since 2014, this process has seen improvements to the undercarriage and fuel pumps (reducing maintenance costs), the fitting of a “universal in-flight entertainment” (IFE) platform (which allows the integration of the IFE with wireless connectivity), the fitting of improved-design toilets (freeing up space for six extra seats), the fitting of full light-emitting diode lighting (also reducing maintenance costs) and recertifying the A320 family doors (recognising passengers can exit them more rapidly in an emergency) to allow the seating on A320s to be increased to 189 and on A321s to 230. Over the next few years, further improvements planned include an optimisation of the cabin layout to allow another extra six seats, providing increased thrust for A321s for hot-and-high operations (for airlines that require this capability), further refining the A321 cabin layout to allow the fitting of 240 seats, the fitting of WiFi networks in the cockpits to improve pilot operations and the development of the 4 000 nm range A321LR (long range) intercontinental model. In addition, the company is aiming to improve the airliner’s low speed performance under its Short Airfield Performance, or Sharp, project and will fit its ‘Brake-to-Vacate’ technology to the A320. (Brake-to-Vacate automatically brings a landing aircraft to a halt at its designated runway exit taxiway, saving time and fuel.)


Next Step

The success of the A320neo-led Airbus, after extensive talks with its customers, to launch an equivalent programme for its A330 wide body airliner – the A330neo. This will use another new generation engine, the Rolls-Royce Trent 7000. This is the latest development of the highly successful Trent family, earlier versions of which power the A330 (Trent 700), the Boeing 787 (Trent 1000) and the A350 XWB (Trent XWB). The Trent 7000 has a bigger fan size (112” or 284.48 cm), which increases engine efficiency, and enjoys an 11% decrease in fuel consumption at normal operating levels. Fuel efficiency per seat will improve by 14%.

The A330neo will have 95% spares commonality with the current A330ceo, even though the airframe of the -neo has been aerodynamically refined. This has involved optimising the twist of the wing, the innermost wing slats and the upper belly fairing. The addition of sharklets has increased the wingspan by 3.7 m to 64 m, but the aircraft remains in the same size category, for airport parking gates, as the A330ceo. “It has a lot of aerodynamic clean-up,” said COO for customers John Leahy. “It will be a very impressive airplane.” Range will be increased by 400 nm, and maintenance costs cut by 5%. The A330neo will come in two versions, the 257-seat A330-800 and the 287-seat A330-900, and has, so far, won 186 firm orders from ten customers. “We spent a lot of time on these aeroplanes, in terms of improving them,” pointed out Rao. The A330neo will have a totally new cabin layout, based on that of the A350 XWB, and adding up to ten extra seats while maintaining comfort. “When passengers board the aircraft, they will not be able to tell the difference between an A330neo and an A350,” affirmed Rao.

Again, the A330 has been subject to continuous incremental improvements over the years. These have included an improved version of the Trent engine (in 2009 – not the new Trent 7000), certification for 240 minutes extended-range twin-engine operational performance standards (better known as Etops – this means that a fully loaded A330 is allowed to fly for four hours on one engine, should an emergency arise, which in turn allows more direct trans- oceanic flights, reducing both flight time and fuel consumption). Other improvements include the development of a new weight version (with a maximum take-off weight – MTOW – of 235 t to 238 t); the fitting of a new flight management system landing system, and a traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS); the development of a regional version with reduced MTOW and reduced operating costs and the development of another new weight version, with a MTOW of 242 t, with increased range (500 nm more) and an up to 2% reduction in fuel consumption.


Early Developers

Although the A380 Superjumbo, indisputably today’s Queen of the Skies, only entered revenue service eight years ago (2008), it has been subject to “non-stop innovation since entry into service,” highlighted Rao. This started with the fitting of Brake-to-Vacate and runway overrun protection systems, manufacturing refinements which reduced the aircraft’s weight by 500 kg and the fitting of head-up displays for the pilots. Since 2010, improvements have been made to the forward lower deck crew rest compartment, an improved instrument landing system and TCAS has been fitted, the assembly cycle on the final assembly line has been shortened, further manufacturing refinements have cut aircraft weight by another 1 000 kg, specific fuel consumption has been improved, Internet and mobile/ cellular phone access has been provided, there have been aerodynamic improvements to the wings, the design weights of the aircraft have been increased (allowing more passengers and cargo, if desired), specific fuel consumption has been improved again and various systems have been improved. Over the next couple of years, a new combined crew rest compartment will be fitted, the cabin design will be revamped and an improved maintenance programme will be introduced.

The great success of the A320neo and the welcome the market has given to the launch of the A330neo has led to speculation in the aviation sector and its associated media about whether Airbus could, should or would launch an A380neo programme. “We’re looking at it,” said Rao in answer to a media question at the 2016 Innovation Days. “I’m sure the A380neo will appear on the market. The 380 has a very long life ahead of it. There’s nothing imminent on the [A380]neo,” added Leahy, while confirming that the concept was being looked at and affirming that the A380 would be in production for as long as the Boeing 747 has been and perhaps even longer.

The A350 XWB may barely be in service – as of May, a total of 24 had been delivered, all A350-900 models (at the end of June, Ethiopian Airways became the first African A350 XWB operator, when it took delivery of its first A350-900) – and the second, larger, member of the family, the A350-1000, has yet to make its maiden flight (the model will enter service next year), but already a near-term development programme has been mapped out. An ultra-long range of the A350-900 is being developed for Singapore Airlines (which recently introduced the standard A350-900 on its Singapore-Johannesburg route). This A350-900ULR will have a range of 8 700 nm with 173 seats. In parallel, a regional version of the A350-900 is also under development, which will have a lower takeoff weight and lower engine thrust (reducing maintenance costs) but which will be very easy to restore to conventional A350-900 performance, if required. Furthermore, by 2020, incremental improvements will reduce A350-900 fuel consumption by 2%, add 500 nm in range and increase payload by 5 t.

Airbus is already pondering a stretched version of the A350-1000, sometimes referred to as the A350-2000. “We are talking to various airlines around the world about what they want,” said Rao, adding that stretching the A350-1000 would be “quite easy”. “We think the [market demand] volume is still in the A350-1000 category,” cautioned Leahy, who also pondered if there was a market for the -2000. “We have not yet launched [into service] the -1000, and we are already talking about a new version!” observed Brégier. “Let’s see what the market wants.

“Our job is to be more competitive, to expand market share, to innovate,” concluded Brégier. “Our customers expect us to deliver what we promised.”

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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