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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 2624.PDF
, FARNBOROUGH REPORT-Airbus studies A320 production rate problems Airbus Industrie A320s are at a premium. An airline submitting an order for A320s today would be told that it had to wait until 1995, or alternatively arrrange a deal with the leasing com panies Flight, September 3, page 95). The A320's phenomenal sales success has forced Airbus to study seriously the prospect of setting up another pro duction line for the type. This would be extremely costly, and defer the date by which the A320 would start returning pure profit to a controversially debt-laden consortium—even though the longer-term pros pects for higher profit might be improved. When asked how much is lost on each A320 today, Airbus president Jean Pierson replies: "Airbus Industries is not going to make a loss on the A320 programme. We have around 630 commitments on this aircraft. There is no chance we will lose money on this programme." He gave 1995 as the year in which Airbus will be in pure profit as an entire oper ation. Several important interlinked Airbus decisions will be announced by December. As far as the A320 is concerned, one will be the production rate deci sion, and the other will concern launch of the stretched A320. The basic decision concerns the production rate required to meet actual and predicted demand, and when that will be sufficiently in excess of current production line capacity to pay back the additional investment in new production facilities. Today Toulouse is accelerating through an A320 production rate of four per month towards a 1990 monthly target of eight and the theoretical maximum of ten. It has also to chase cost- cutting targets, and try to main tain engineering quality which has been known to fall in other companies under production- rate pressure. If the board comes up with a figure which justifies the second line, then, as Pierson puts it, the decisions have to be made "when, with whom, where, and how". Given that the A320 already has six years of guaranteed production, surely the decision could be made sooner than December? "No", Pierson tells Flight, "the board will not be ready to make a deci sion before then." Not only have the figures to be studied (Airbus would not need govern ment backing for production line investment, Pierson says), but talks with McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed con cerning possible joint ventures have to be finalised. December, therefore, will mark either the birth of such a venture, or its death-knell. 0 Making its Farnborough debut, the A320 is on show in both CFM56- and V.2500- powered forms—the latter engine/airframe combination making its international debut. The V.2500-powered A320 flew less than six weeks before the show, and received entry- into-service powerplants on August 29. The aircraft is already 40 per cent of the way through its 240hr certification programme, and a second V.2500-powered-A320 will fly in December to complete 300hr of mainly route-proving oper ations. Rolls-Royce's family gathering The Rolls-Royce family of civil engines extends through the thrust spectrum from the Tay 12,4201b to 15,100lbJ, which powers the Gulfstream IV and Fokker 100, to the newly launched RB.211-524L, rated at 65,000lb thrust and with growth potential to more than 70,000lb A340 engine on target CFM International claims that its CFM56-5C2 engine for the A340 is scheduled to start test ing in the last quarter of 1989. CFMI maintains that, with an initial thrust rating of 31,2001b, the engine will be capable of thrust levels "sufficiently beyond this rating", to accom modate any potential growth requirements imposed. The first flight-test of the CFM56-5C2 is planned for May 1990, in a modified Boeing 707 engine testbed. The first flight under the wing of an Airbus A340 is scheduled for April 1991, 13 months before its plan ned service entry on the Euro pean airliner. The -5C2 is derived from the family of CFM56 engines which has together accumu lated more than 9 • 1 million flight-hours. According to CFM, it will "enable an airline to maintain a significant degree of commonality of its engines for both the A320 and A340". This commonality will, accord ing to CFM executive vice- president Frank Homan, be continued with the -5B, which is being offered to Airbus Indus tries for the A320 stretch by incorporation of the core of the -5C2. The CFM56-5A1, which powers approximately 85 per cent of all Airbus A320 aircraft, has achieved sales worth $2-6 billion. CFM points out that it has a 100 per cent record of sales of A320s to leasing companies—namely GATX, GPA, ILFC, and Ansett. It has also formed a 50/50 joint venture company with GPA to supply spare engines to any potential customer. CFM main tains that its only competitor in the A320 market, the Inter national Aero Engines V.2500, is in a "sales decline". The CFM56-3 has passed the milestone of 1,000 sales on the Boeing 737 family of twinjets. Its next milestone should be passed in mid-September, with the delivery of the first Boeing 737-400 to Piedmont Airlines in the USA. CFMI's market base cur rently includes 67 countries and 2,262 engines in worldwide service. 18 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 17 September 1988
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