Flightglobal.com reported this morning that new renderings of the Airbus A350 illustrate the new look of the nose with 6 windows similar to that of the A380.
A closer look at the images also reveals several major changes to the wing design. The new wings show the winglets with an increased upward bend. In addition, the almost bare wing that marked the original XWB design now has three large flap fairings. The wing dimensions have appeared to change as well. The new wing looks as though it features slightly less sweep.
Judge for yourself:
Original Wing
Revised Wing
Images Courtesy Airbus and Emirates
We don't hear any big and real decision concerning this airplane. We don't have any information on major supplier agreement. We don't have anything really exciting. Only small and insignificant details trickle out of the program. If this fourth nose version and third wing-tip form improve the efficiency by 10%, this information can be interesting. But who really cares about aesthetics?
I've been looking at the images and they seem to be more for publicity of the Emirates brand than the presentation of the new shapes of the A350. If we were to look at details in the shape of the nose or the winglets and the new introduction of the flap fairings, then we should also note that the plane has two large doors in the forward port side of the fuselage which is very absurd to happen; that there are unescessary doors here and there, including what seems to be an oversized ground access door. Also the wing root is, aerodynamically, unacceptable, and the belly fairing is parted in two. These images, in sum, are just creating hipe around a totally artistic rendition of the A350 which does not represent the true design by Airbus. Will the A350 have a new, more 'ala A380' cockpit glazing? It's a given; will it have new winglets? could be; is this picture a nice computer renter? sure is. Is it the A350? not really.
I've been looking at the images and they seem to be more for publicity of the Emirates brand than the presentation of the new shapes of the A350. If we were to look at details in the shape of the nose or the winglets and the new introduction of the flap fairings, then we should also note that the plane has two large doors in the forward port side of the fuselage which is very absurd to happen; that there are unecessary doors here and there, including what seems to be an oversized ground access door. Also the wing root is, aerodynamically, unacceptable, and the belly fairing is parted in two. These images, in sum, are just creating hipe around a totally artistic rendition of the A350 which does not represent the true design by Airbus. Will the A350 have a new, more 'ala A380' cockpit glazing? It's a given; will it have new winglets? could be; is this picture a nice computer renter? sure is. Is it the A350? not really.
Boeing originally looked at a wing design on th 787 which incorporated all of the flap support structure inside the basic wing shape, without the need for external fairings. The weight penalty of such an arrangement turned out to be greater than the drag penalty of having supports that require fairings.
Another point of note - the windows seem slightly wider spaced - almost looking like a DC-8! Comparing the old rendering - http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/photos/airbusa350/images/11817/original.aspx - with the new ones:
Door 1 - Door 2
Old rendering - 16 windows
New rendering - 14 windows
Door 2 - Door 3
Old rendering - 27
New rendering - 23
Door 3 - Door 4
Old rendering - 20
New rendering - 15 or 16 (difficult to tell from any of the images)
The price to pay for the wider, larger windows?