Aircraft manufacturing of large commercial jets is basically a duopoly (assuming we don’t consider China’s COMAC to be a global player). Both Airbus and Boeing have as much business as they can handle, and aren’t in a position to ramp up production.
Continue reading: Airbus Plans A350 Stretch Version, To Compete With Boeing 777X
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Eventually it will happen but they need a new engine the RR Ultra its the logical candidate to replace the Trent.
I thought the general consensus (wishful thinking of the Airbus fanboys) was that B777-X would never see the light of day! I wonder why Airbus wants to compete with a phantom!? Confused...
CX was always interested in a stretched A350 for flights to Miami.
https://www.ch-aviation.com/news/46738-cathay-pacific-weighs-up-a350-8000-potential
Many people believe that the A350-1000 is an ideal passenger friendly aircraft. Not too big, or, small and uncomfortable.
One knows that it is the individual airlines who determine how comfortable, for example a Y cabin, will be depending upon seat pitch. However, after somewhere between 200-250 passenger hours per year on board the BA A350, I have never felt uncomfortable.
One would always choose an A350 over a B777, with one exception …. a B777 of AF decked out in the New La Premiere suite.
Airbus has grown as much as it has by waiting for Boeing to develop nearly every new model after Boeing has completed its corresponding model.
The A350 was designed after the 787 and with considerably more growth potential.
Airbus had the A380 at the top of its production line; Boeing had the 747-8. Both were economic and sales failures
Boeing stretched the 777-300ER to create the 777X including by addition of a new carbon fiber wing while the A350 and B787 are more than 50% carbon fiber.
The A350-1000 has considerably more range than the 777-9 and has been in service for almost a decade.
A stretch of the A350-1000 is possible but would require new engines to offset the larger fuselage w/o losing as much range compared to using current generation engines.
Since Rolls-Royce is actively working on the Ultrafan, it is possible that a stretched A350 could be available for sale in a few years with delivery in the early 2030s - which is well within airline planning timeframes.
It's fantastic that A350-1000 is superior to B777. However, that's off-topic. The plane that the proposed A350-2000 is trying to compete with is B777-X.
Airbus might also want to clean up the A350K wing even more improve its aspect ratio to reduce the induced drag.
Hey Ben,
Honest question - do you moderate the comments section? The reason I ask is because my posts seem to disappear after a few minutes. It is customary for the moderator to drop a note to the poster of the deleted post as to which of your rules the post violated. After all, you do have the e-mail address associated with every post.
I am confused ... I thought the general consensus (the wishful thinking of Airbus fanboys) was that B777-X would never see the light of day! Then why is Airbus trying to compete with such phantom?
So Airbus, you mean like the A340-600? That was a resounding success wasn't it...
Well isn't that a reasonable assumption? Isn't it like 10 years or almost 10 years delayed EIS now?
You can’t compare the a340 and a350. The a340 was outdated and no model was successful really.
Looks like this is their plan B. Their plan A was to encourage a lot of airlines to configure economy like how 777 economy cabins are configured
The A346 was a quad and meant to replace earlier 747s. The 777-300ER came later. Now, if the A346 were a twin and/or the 300ER was non-existent, it would've gotten more sales.
Well, Airbus doesn't seem to think "that is a reasonable assumption", though. As is indicated in the article, they are trying to compete with 777-X with a stretch to A350-1000. He
Airbus seems to hit the sweet spot in regards to cabin width and comfort e.g. A330/340, A350. If they were to add another seat, that would be LCC territory e.g. Cebu, Lion Air, etc.
The 777 and 787 were initially designed for 9 and 8-abreast respectively. Now if you add another seat, that's still full service territory.
The A359 as well, but the key word in the first article is "bigger". So my guess would be using a 779 sized aircraft for passengers and cargo as the A350 family is a lighter airframe.
The wing width will be the issue, a339 have an aspect ratio of 11, 359 got 9.5 while a35k only has 9, they can't decrease it further.
Who else remembers certain airlines were very vocal 10+ years ago that Airbus should have done the A350-2000 right there and then?
So far, a few airlines have put 10 abreast on an A350. They are LCCs Air Caraibes and French Bee. They have also gotten their first full service A350 customer that will follow suit, which is Philippine Airlines.
Philippine Airlines is an oddity as they were trying to be more of a hybrid airline from about a decade ago or so hence the 9-abreast A330s. When the previous conglomerate sold their stake back, they reconfigured some of their A330s back to a more "status quo" configuration in line with FSCs.
In regards to the A350, Airbus seems to be mimicking the B team by redesigning the sidewalls and increasing the cabin width similar to the 777X. I guess they're the first FSC (assuming their seating configuration is finalized) to go 10-abreast as they seem to cater more to their own Filipino diaspora than westerners.
Instinctively this feels like they might be preemptively ensuring they have a product ready for when the Emirates A380 fleet is eventually replaced over the course of the 2030s? Because this would be the time to start developing one...
It will not need more gear.
Stretching the A350 will bring it in line with the B777-9 length. The B777 and A350 make use of similar gear design and the stretched A350 will still weigh less than the B777
Etihad seriously considered it.
But I doubt they will still go ahead with it.
It was to have 408 seats with 44 business class.
The A350 program seems to max out at the 1000 because of the Trent XWB. Perhaps a re engine by the next decade will enable the stretch?