As expected, Airbus today released details of its revised A350 design.
What was not expected, at least for me, was that the manufacturer kept the A350 moniker. There was talk last week that Airbus would probably move to an “A370” tag in an attempt to distance the old from the new.
Technically the new aircraft is dubbed the X-WB.
Isn’t that a wanna be television network?
Whatever. No, actually it stands for Xtra Wide Body.
Airbus now estimates it is going to spend about $10 billion in development costs on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner competitor. Estimated arrival time for the new baby is now 2012.
Meanwhile, I was *shocked,* simply *shocked* to hear today that Boeing did confirm in Farnborough that it is experiencing production delays with the 787.
Reasons? The two usual suspects. Excess weight and problems with suppliers.
The percentage of outsourced components on the 787 is unprecedented. As a result, this news really does not come as a surprise, as industry observers have said for years that the high number of outsourced elements of the new jet would be problematic when crunch time rolled around.
The difference with Boeing is that the schedule and weight delays aren’t going to impact the entry-into-service date (or at least that’s Mulally’s line for now).
It’s clear that the huge level of outsourcing on 787 is problematic, but I think it’s also pretty clear that the Project Manager-types at Boeing are doing far better than their Airbus counterparts.
Oh, how the tide turns…
Personally I think both companies are suffering a bit from the “promising more than we can deliver” problem. Both the 787 and the A380 are monumental development projects. Besides, most of us have seen enough new aircraft introductions to know that they rarely go smoothly.
The thing that made the Airbus news last month so much more damning, however, has to do with 1) this was not the first delay, 2) suspect EADS management stock sales that took place in March and 3) the swagger that Airbus has been throwing around the last couple of years as Boeing struggled a bit.
Just goes to show that no throne is high enough to escape flood waters — if the levee decides to buckle. (And that’s my Katrina moment for this evening.)