Airbus confident in A350 schedule

Looking at the lessons learned from the setbacks from the A380 and B787 Airbus strives to address any development issues before the start of the A350 final assembly scheduled for late 2011.

Airbus says it will succeed in carrying it's next generation long-haul aircraft, the A350XWB by avoiding the problems repeatedly encountered by Boeing with the B787 Dreamliner, now late by nearly three years.

The Airbus management at the headquarters in Toulouse displays it's confidence in the program.

"There are situations in a program of this type with a totally new aircraft with many new technological firsts" said Fabrice Bregier, CEO of Airbus. "We can not rule out everything, but we do everything to solve any development problems before the plane goes into production."

Airbus has delayed the pace of the program by two months to perform all possible tests on the wing junction with the fuselage to ensure it was strong enough. Unlike Boeing where this problem was discovered on the assembly line in Everett in the United States where many manufactured parts (the wing-fuselage junction in particular) produced in Japan and Italy did not meet the specifications set by Boeing.

"The A350 has made a great leap forward," said Tom Enders, Airbus President, despite the schedule slip of delivery by six months, from first to second half of 2013. According to the management, "the problem is not to lose a few months but to ensure that at each stage the maturity is there."

Airbus says it has learned from the disappointments of the A380 program and wants to avoid the sam mistakes for the A350. "We switched teams because we want to know the truth, they must inform us of problems so we can anticipate, react and adjust as they are identified and not when it's too late."

Airbus has started the pre-assembly of pieces that will then be delivered to Nantes Saint-Nazaire and Hamburg where the pre assembly of entire sections is planned from spring 2011 or later. Final assembly of the first aircraft is expected to begin late 2011 in Toulouse.

The target of Airbus is to deliver the first aircraft of more than 550 total ordered to launch customer Qatar Airways in the second half of 2013.

Source: www.lefigaro.fr