Word: a350
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...performance. Boeing is working with the world's largest producer of carbon fiber, Tokyo-based Toray Industries, which is still fine-tuning its mass production (this is the first large-scale work Toray has done) and tooling. But with the use of more carbon-fiber composites in aircraft--the A350 will also be 50%--Boeing is on top of the trend...
...seat capacity. Already 38 airlines have ordered 490 planes ranging in price from $148 million to about $189 million. Continental, the first to sign on, has an order out for 25. Qantas has committed to 45 with 20 options, and the right to purchase 50 more. Airbus wants its A350 (still in development and listed at $165 million) to compete head-to-head with the certification and delivery of the B-787s in 2008. But ordering the A350 now means delivery in 2013. "The A350 will compete with the 787 in five years," says Airbus co-chief commercial officer John...
...couple of years. "But there is a danger it'll get sucked into a vicious circle of job cuts, sinking morale and political infighting," he worries. Already stretched by the A380 crisis, Airbus must decide whether it has the money and management to proceed with developing the 330-seat A350 in a bid to catch up with Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner, or focus elsewhere. Steve East at Credit Suisse First Boston in London, who downgraded EADS stock to "underperform" last week, thinks the company will cancel the €8 billion A350 program altogether. It's all a huge change...
Airbus' reaction to the 787, meanwhile, has been baffling. At first, Forgeard was quoted as dismissing Boeing's new plane as a "Chinese copy" of Airbus' similar A330. But last December, Airbus abruptly shifted and said it would build a derivative plane called the A350. Boeing spins the A350 as a sign of lost confidence in the A380. In an interview last month, Boeing's Stonecipher pointed to another European government-backed plane that never made a profit and has been grounded. "The A380 is a great engineering success, but so was the Concorde. The A380 could be a market...
...First Choice Airlines. Explains a Boeing spokesman: "It is simply a matter of time before we get there." The company notes that Boeing's commercial airplane unit is still profitable. Airbus places heavy bets, too. Late last year the company announced it would launch a new plane - the A350, similar to the 7E7. Boeing's argument is that Airbus can make such snap choices because it never faces the kind of market risks that Boeing does. Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at Virginia-based Teal Group, agrees: "Airbus has the freedom to develop new products whenever it wants...