FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1985
1985 - 1688.PDF
EUROPE'S AEROSPACE CHALLENGE no longer. But to take full advantage of being "first with the third generation" it must be able to convince customers that the technology it offers in the A320 repre sents a significant advance over the MD- 80 series and the 737-300. At present the A320 is not selling as fast as the MD-80 or 737-300, as the two derivative types are there now for those who need fleet replacements now. Flight has been looking at reasons why this sales pattern could change. Boeing and Airbus are agreed that one of the key factors for success in an airliner programme is adaptability. Sutter recently defined as one of the essential characteristics in a demanding, rapidly-changing market place the ability of a product to accommodate to change. An airline may buy an aircraft for one purpose and find that it must use it for another. An airliner manufacturer may build an aircraft with a specific market as its main target, then find that the target has moved. If a manufacturer wants to make money from selling an airliner, its design must be adaptable, and capable of producing the market-sensitive derivatives which will keep selling for long enough to generate profits. Airbus sees the A320 in exactly that light, and expects the airlines ultimately to do the same. "The A320 is still three years from delivery, and the closer we get the more the airlines will go for it," says new chairman Jean Pierson. "An aircraft is not just a tool for profit. It is also an investment". Pierson's view is that the A320 will be recognised as an investment of longer-term value than the derivative competitors, not only because of the advanced technology embodied in the early versions, but because, just as Airbus has continually updated its A300/A310 line, so the A320 will continue to benefit from further technological advances. Top Airbus' first A310-300 on the production line. Products are continually being developed. Below The A320 makes increased use of composites Ply-by-wire controls (electrical rather than mechanical signalling to the control surface actuators) have been selected for the A320. Airbus says that this will add nothing to the price of the aircraft, although that could be a factor which ensures that Airbus has to sell more airframes before profits appear, because testing the system through the certifica- tors will not be cheap. Fly-by-wire benefits are, says Airbus, a 250kg weight saving; 40 per cent saving in maintenance man- hours; higher-quality handling; and "reduced transition training costs because all aircraft can be made to handle alike". With the finer control precision which electrical signalling gives, relaxed stability can be more closely approached, reducing drag. Also, fewer aerodynamic devices of lower area are needed. A state-of-the-art avionics fit reduces weight and, says Airbus, is cheaper to Frame structure Main landing gear doors and fairings Fixed leading edge and trailing edge panels maintain. Boeing says that the next major avionics advance will be flat-panel CRT avionics, which will reduce equipment volume by 60 per cent and weight by 70 per cent. But the early A320s will be too early for the flat-panel kit. Airbus is also claiming advantages in A320's proposed flight guidance computer over current FMS/autopilot systems. It is much simpler, says Airbus, and is effectively a single air data computer with integral inertial reference system. Compared with the original A300 equip ment there are 75 fewer air data units. This means fewer interfaces (where most glitches occur), and easier trouble shooting. For the crew, all systems are more closely integrated. The more electric an aeroplane becomes, the better its BITE (built-in test equipment) works. Fault diagnosis in the A320 will be easier than it has been in earlier airliners. All other factors apart, success for the A320 depends on it remaining in the van of new technology, and not being outdated by dramatic advances during the 1990s. The company says that the airliner will contain "advanced technology that will not be superseded by competitors this century". It is unlikely that, in the years 1988-92, vast or fundamental improvements in aerodynamic design will be achieved over a design created by a company with Airbus' resources. And in materials tech nology, within certain limits, what can be designed into a completely new machine can be incorporated into an existing one. The sole significant new advance beyond the technology that the A320 offers is the propfan. In the battle for sales between the Europeans and Americans in the 1990s and beyond, it seems that victory or defeat rests almost entirely on that single revolutionary step in the propulsion field. Propfan is a high risk, high reward item on which manufacturers are gambling the futures of their mid- range civil aircraft programmes. D so FLIGHT International, 1 June 1985
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
