Continued developments in the world of Airbus
Airbus and Bombardier announce CSeries Partnership
Airbus and Bombardier are to become partners on the CSeries aircraft programme. as per an agreement that brings together Airbus’ global reach and scale with Bombardier’s newest, state-of-the-art jet aircraft family, “positioning both partners to fully unlock the value of the CSeries platform and create significant new value for customers, suppliers, employees and shareholders.” Under the agreement, Airbus will provide procurement, sales and marketing and customer support expertise to the CSeries Aircraft Limited Partnership ( CSALP), the entity that manufactures and sells the CSeries. Airbus will acquire a 50.01% interest in CSALP. Bombardier and Investissement Québec (IQ) will own approximately 31% and 19% respectively. CSALP’s headquarters and primary assembly line and related functions will remain in Québec, with the support of Airbus’ global reach and its scale. Airbus’ global industrial footprint will expand with the Final Assembly Line in Canada and additional CSeries production at Airbus’ manufacturing site in Alabama, US.
The single aisle market is a key growth driver, representing 70% of the expected global future demand for aircraft. Ranging from 100 to 150 seats, the CSeries is ‘highly complementary’ to Airbus’ existing single aisle aircraft portfolio, which focuses on the higher end of the single-aisle business (150240 seats). The world class sales, marketing and support networks that Airbus brings into the venture are expected to strengthen and accelerate the CSeries’ commercial momentum. Additionally, Airbus’ supply chain expertise is expected to generate significant CSeries production cost savings.
The first A330neo flew on 18 October at Blagnac in Toulouse for its maiden flight over south-western France. The aircraft, MSN1795, is an A330-900 and the first of three certification flight- test aircraft to fly, powered by the latest technology Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 turbofans. The A330neo’s certification development programme itself will last around 1,400 flight-test hours. This will comprise 1,100 flight hours for the A330-900 campaign to achieve its respective EASA and FAA Type Certification around the middle of 2018, plus 300 flight hours for A330-800 version, which will be certified in 2019. Overall, the full A330neo Family flight-test campaign will be performed by three certification flight-test aircraft, plus the first production aircraft (the latter to validate the Airspace cabin prior to EIS).
Launched in July 2014, the latest generation of Airbus’ widebody family, the A330neo builds on the A330’s proven economics, versatility and reliability while reducing fuel consumption by a further 14 per cent per seat. The NEO’s two versions – the A330- 800 and A330- 900 – will accommodate 257 and 287 passengers respectively in a three-class seating layout,
are powered by the latest-generation RollsRoyce Trent 7000 engines, accommodate up to 10 more seats, offer new “Airspace” cabin amenities, and feature a new larger span wing with Sharklet wingtip devices. Emirates welcomes the 100th
On 3 November Emirates celebrated the milestone delivery of its 100th Airbus A380 aircraft at a special ceremony in Hamburg, at the manufacturer’s delivery centre Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Emirates’ Chairman and Chief Executive attended the ceremony along with Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline; Tom Enders, Airbus Chief Executive Officer; Dominic Horwood, RollsRoyce, Director - Customer and Services; Ali Al Ahmed, UAE Ambassador to Germany and Frank Horch, Senator for Economy, Transport and Innovation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
Powered by Rolls- Royce engines, Emirates’ 100th A380 is configured in three cabin classes, with 14 private suites in First class, 76 seats in Business and 426 seats in Economy. It also features the airline’s newly revamped Onboard Lounge and was also displayed at the Dubai Air Show 2017.
Emirates is the world’s largest operator of the A380, flying this double-decked jet to 48 cities on six continents. Including one- off flights, special commemorative services, test flights and other operational deployments, over 70 airports have welcomed the Emirates A380. In the 2016/17 financial year, Emirates received a record 19 new A380 mega airliners.
Airbus’ A340 laminar-flow BLADE test demonstrator aircraft (A340-300 MSN001) made its maiden flight for the EU-sponsored Clean Sky BLADE project. The “Flight Lab”, took off from the Tarbes aerodrome in southern France and after a series of successful tests landed at Airbus’ facilities in Toulouse Blagnac. The overall flight time was 3hrs/38mins. The BLADE project – which stands for “Breakthrough Laminar Aircraft Demonstrator in Europe” – is tasked with assessing the feasibility of introducing the technology for commercial aviation. It aims to improve aviation’s ecological footprint, bringing with it a 50% reduction of wing friction and up to five percent lower CO emission. Airbus’ A340 Flight 2 Lab is the first test aircraft in the world to combine a transonic laminar wing profile with a true internal primary structure. A key goal of BLADE is to be able to measure the tolerances and imperfections which can be present and still sustain laminarity. To this end, Airbus will simulate every type of imperfection in a controlled manner, so that at the end of the campaign the tolerances for building a laminar wing will be fully known. The flight lab will perform around 150 flight hours in the coming months.
Thales to train A400M pilots
As part of a long- standing relationship between the two companies, Airbus has awarded Thales a contract for a further two new A400M military training simulators the French and German air forces to received these new simulators in 2019 and 2020. The two new simulators will enable A400M crews to train in complex missions such as in-flight refuelling and low-level tactical operations in a safe environment. Thus far, Thales has delivered five system for A400M FFS and two Flat Panel Flight-Training Devices to France, Germany, the UK and the International Training Centre in Sevilla and a sixth FFS will be delivered to Spain in 2018. Thales is the only provider of A400M Flight Simulators through OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d’ARmement). In France, Thales is also an Airbus industrial partner for support operations for the Airbus A400M training centre at the French Air Force’s OrléansBricy 123 base.