FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1998
1998 - 2365.PDF
Present and future Airbus customers will meet at Farnborough to discuss design options for the next generation A340s MAX KINGSLEY-JONES/LONDON WHEN AIRBUS Industrie launched its four-engined fly-by-wire A340 family in June 1987, it was the first all-new long-range widebody for a generation, and seemed to catch Boeing on the hop. The McDonnell Douglas DC-10-derived MD-11 provided the only competition for the A340 for several years as Boeing seemed preoccupied with its "767-X" project. Whether this was a ruse on Boeing's part to lull its rival into a false sense of security is open to conjecture, but Airbus vice-president strate gic planning Adam Brown concedes that, when planning the A340 and twin-engined A3 30, the European consortium assumed that the compe tition would be a 767 derivative. When Boeing launched the all-new 777 twinjet in 1990, it became clear that the Seattle-based manufac turer had taken a long and detailed look at the market. Boeing had obviously formulated a family plan for its new aircraft from die day of the launch, with stretched and longer-range models over the horizon. Boeing's 777 family approach stole the initia tive from Airbus, and the new twinjet proceed ed to infiltrate A330/A340 customers in the Asian market, as well as landing its own clients. The A i40- 600 (above) is a 20-frame stretch of the basic A 340. The cockpit will feature active matrix LCD displays While Boeing had a 380-seat 777, die -300, on the drawing board from the start, Airbus seemed reluctant to commit to a larger A340 that would enable it to compete head-on. The European consortium was constrained by die engine thrust growth available from the A340's CFM International CFM56s and under took some simple stretch studies under the "A340-400X" project name. In 1991 thestudies crystallised around a 12-frame (6.3m) stretch, which boosted three-class capacity to around 340 passengers. With the constraints of the existing -300 wing and little more dirust avail able from the CFM56-5, however, the-400X would have suffered a range penalty of around 2,800km (l,500nm). Ironically, seven years on, it is Boeing which is now struggling to stay com petitive as 777 engine manufacturers are reluc tant to invest in increasing thmst much bevond 100,0001b (445LN). With the long range market clearly beingdri- ven by payload/range performance, Airbus quicklv decided that a larger new engine in die 40,000- 45,0001b-thrust bracket would be needed and so die consortium sought bids from competing manufacturers. Airbus had started a formal process of solicit ing input from potential operators in 1995, with the first meeting of a customer focus group. The second focus group meeting occurred in • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 September 1998 125
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
