New Widebodies
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
NEW WIDEBODIES OEMs ready entrants as market ‘rebalances’ by Gregory Polek A downward trend in sales has hardened pro- In the case of the Boeing 777, for example, not jections of persistently weak demand for wide- only has the new 777X struggled to build upon an www.ainonline.com body airliners at a time airframers prepare to initial spate of orders that accompanied its launch introduce several new and derivative mod- at the Dubai Airshow in 2013, Boeing has failed in els to the market. Although analysts predict its original intent to sell enough legacy 777s to sus- airlines’ seemingly insatiable hunger for new tain production at last year’s rate of 8.3 per month. narrowbodies to continue, the category of air- Now building seven of the big twins per month, planes that historically produced the highest Boeing expects to slow the rate to five by August, per-unit profit margins has struggled to main- which effectively translates to a 3.5-airplane deliv- tain the sales momentum manufacturers had ery rate with its plan to “fire blanks” down the line expected following impressive volumes of as part of “Lean” implementation and dedicating launch commitments. some airplanes to 777X flight-testing. © 2017 AIN Publications. All Rights Reserved. For Reprints go to AVIATION INTERNATIONAL NEWS • JUNE 2017 Still, Boeing vice president of marketing be great with its economics and range for Asia Randy Tinseth prefers to characterize the cur- and for China.” rent environment as one marked by a “rebal- For Airbus, the A350 XWB series has yet to ancing” of demand following a period in which enter the phase of production acceleration the deliveries spiked for both major airframers in company had hoped to achieve early last year. the wake of disruptions caused by delays to the Unfortunately, supply-chain problems associated 787, A350 and A380 programs. In fact, Boe- mainly with seats and lavatories has forced it to ing delivered the 500th Dreamliner last Decem- play its own game of catch-up. Although the com- ber to Colombia’s Avianca, just five years and pany nearly managed to meet its goal of deliv- three months after sending the first 787-8 to All ering 50 A350-900s by year-end with a furious Nippon Airways, setting a new record time to fourth-quarter delivery pace, reaching 49, sched- 500 deliveries for twin-aisle aircraft. But before ules remain backloaded for 2017. Dreamliner deliveries started and accelerated in Meanwhile, following a decision last year by earnest, production upticks of other twin-aisle American Airlines to delay delivery of 22 A350- models filled a gap left by the 787’s extended 900s by an average of 26 months, long-term deliv- development. ery schedules for the A350 remain in flux for “We went through a period in which airplanes reasons unrelated to the supply chain. In fact, like the A330 and 777 went up in production to early this year United Airlines said it had begun fill some of the spots that were left by delays in considering alternatives to the 35 A350-1000s on other programs,” explained Tinseth. “I would which it holds a firm order and, more recently, say we’re probably in a place of more normal Delta Air Lines deferred delivery of 10 of 25 demand because we’ve done our catch-up work A350-900s by two to three years. in the marketplace.” Notwithstanding the uncertainties surround- Although Boeing’s 787 lines haven’t felt the ing the U.S. airlines’ A350 orders, that program same sort of effect of what Tinseth characterized remains a relative bright spot for Airbus, con- as a return to normalcy, Boeing’s rate hikes for sidering the travails of the A380 superjumbo. As the Dreamliner appear to have entered a period sales totals for the big quad-jet continue to lan- of moderation, likely holding at 12 per month guish, Airbus has put to rest any thoughts of until the end of the decade, when it hopes to see launching a so-called A380neo any time in the enough demand to raise the rate to 14. The latest near or medium-term future. Instead, it has intro- member of the series, the 787-10, flew for the first duced a new interior configuration designed to time on March 31 and by that time had drawn create room for 78 more passengers on average www.ainonline.com firm orders for 149 copies from nine customers, a in an effort to widen its appeal to current and number Boeing considered acceptable for a deriv- future customers. ative that won’t likely reach the market until the Of course, every airframe maker’s primary goal middle of next year. lies with cutting seat-mile costs, and whether a “I think we have opportunity for [sales of the completely new design or a derivative of a ubiqui- 787-10] to grow. Long term we look at the 787-9 tous industry workhorse, each new airplane model and 787-10 being probably more the heart of the promises its own set of economic benefits. Here, 787 market,” said Tinseth. “But the -10 is going AIN recaps the credentials of each widebody air- to be the growth vehicle for the -9, so the -9 is just plane program under full-scale development for establishing itself. We especially think the -10 will market entry over the next decade. © 2017 AIN Publications. All Rights Reserved. For Reprints go to AVIATION INTERNATIONAL NEWS • JUNE 2017 BOEING 777X regulators to classify both airplanes as Code E, Now well into its detailed design phase, the meaning they’ll fit into the same size parking larger of two new Boeing 777X designs—the space the 777-300ER now uses. The Airbus A380, 777-9X—remains on schedule to reach comple- conversely, operates as a Code F airplane, signif- tion of final engineering definition by the end of icantly limiting the number of airports into and the year as program managers eye final assem- out of which it can fly. bly of the static-test airframe next year. Featur- Speaking with AIN before the Paris Air Show, ing 105,000-pound-thrust GE9X turbofans and Boeing 777X chief project engineer Terry structural improvements to the fuselage that will Beezhold characterized the wing as a “big part” allow for a 6,000-foot cabin altitude, the airplane of the airplane’s efficiency gain, accounting for appears well positioned to meet Boeing’s 2020 most of the aerodynamic contribution to the new entry-into-service target, as the company pro- jet’s 20-percent per-seat fuel-burn reduction com- gresses beyond pre-production verification and pared with the 777-300ER. into full-scale production of the all-new compos- Beezhold explained that the wingtips that allow ite wing. for the extreme span operate with a fairly simple Common to 9X and the shorter 8X, the wing- hydraulic system employing a geared rotary actu- span measures 235 feet, 5 inches, the widest ever ator and latch pins. The wings work on a so-called designed for a commercial aircraft. One of the autofold system during the landing rollout; once airplane’s most visually distinguishing character- the airplane slows to a certain speed, the wings istics, a 12-foot-long folding wingtip, will allow automatically fold up. www.ainonline.com BOEING 777-9X © 2017 AIN Publications. All Rights Reserved. For Reprints go to AVIATION INTERNATIONAL NEWS • JUNE 2017 “We’ve built a prototype rig and we have been The challenge, said Beezhold, centered on mak- abusing it, testing it, trying to identify any kind ing those changes without adding much weight of issues and, frankly, it’s in really good shape so to the airframe. In fact, he reported that engi- we’re now moving into full production design and neers have done a remarkable job of keeping build of all the components,” he said. to the airplane’s overall design weight. “In this Boeing planned to build the first pair of wings phase of the program, typically you do see weight for the program’s static-test article this year, fol- growth,” he said. “But we’ve seen it go the other lowed by loading and the start of assembly of the way...Every engineer, every stress analyst needs second set for the first flight-test aircraft. Apart to know what the requirements are for the part from the static-test article, the program will use of the airplane they’re responsible for, and it’s four flight-test vehicles and a fatigue airplane been just amazing to see what people come up Beezhold said would cycle for “a couple of years.” with to meet the requirements.” Meanwhile, the new engines, scheduled for test- ing aboard a flying testbed later this year, account BOEING 787-10 for 10 percent of the airplane’s fuel burn savings. A straightforward stretch of the 787-9 and the The largest commercial engine ever developed, the largest of Boeing’s three Dreamliner models, GE9X features a front fan diameter of 134 inches, the 787-10 can hold 40 more passengers than its a composite fan case and 16 carbon-fiber compos- smaller sibling carries, giving it a seating capac- ite fan blades; a 27:1 pressure ratio, 11-stage high- ity of 330 in a two-class cabin layout. In the -10, pressure compressor; a third-generation Taps III Boeing engineers sought to nearly replicate the -9 combustor for high efficiency and low emissions; in every way possible, endowing it with 95-per- and CMC material in the combustor and turbine.