Airbus A330 Airbus developed the A330 twin-engine, widebody commercial passenger transport to replace aircraft such as the A300, DC-10-10 and L-1011. An A330 prototype first flew in November 1992, with customer deliveries following in December 1993. Customers have a choice of turbofan engines in the 64,000-72,000-lb.-thrust class: the GE CF6-80E1, Pratt & Whitney PW4000 or Rolls-Royce Trent 700. Three A330 models are available. The A330-300 seats 335 passengers in two classes, or 295 in three classes. The A330-200 seats 293 in two classes, or 253 in three.
The A340 is a four-engine, intercontinental, widebody commercial transport aircraft. A prototype flew in October 1991, and deliveries began in January 1993. The A340-200 and -300 were certificated by the European Joint Aviation Authorities in December 1992 and the FAA in February 1993. Both models are powered by four 31,200-34,000-lb.-thrust CFM56-5C4 turbofans. Two newer models, the longer-range -500 and the stretched -600, are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 500s. Typical seating for the -200, -300, -500 and -600 is 262, 295, 313 and 380 passengers, respectively.
Currently in development, the A350 is a twin-engine, widebody jetliner intended to compete with Boeing’s 787 and 777. The A350 is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines rated in the 75,000-97,000-lb.-thrust range, and will have a cruise speed of around Mach 0.85. Three basic versions are being marketed: the -800, -900 and -1000. Depending on the version, the A350 seats 276-369 passengers, and will have a range of 8,100-8,500 nm. The maiden flight occurred in June 2013. Type certification is expected in late 2014, -900 service entry in the same timeframe.
Investigation team says 2 sec. before beginning to break up in midair, the vehicle's two moveable tail booms unexpectedly began to deploy into a feathering position.
The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments paper details the roles of new and existing systems in the Third Offset strategy; a larger role for the Long-Range Strike Bomber is one of several systems listed.
Ahead of the Zhuhai air show, Aviation Week's International Defense Editor Bill Sweetman talks to Defense Managing Editor Jen DiMascio about the J-20 Chinese fighter.
NASA’s commercial crew program is in court now, so the lawyers will get a say in deciding how the U.S. and its space-exploration partners will fly astronauts to orbit.
The official unveiling of Pratt & Whitney Canada’s PW800 turbofan at this year’s National Business Aviation Association convention marked a sea change in the provision of engines for the world’s long-range business jets.
In contrast to Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports, Kansai has been able to use its greater available capacity to draw new flights from Japanese and foreign airlines. It is positioning itself well to take advantage of an increase in overseas visitor numbers. This has been particularly evident with LCCs, as Japan’s new budget airlines establish bases and grow their networks at Kansai. In addition, several foreign LCCs have launched service to Osaka, and more plan to follow.
Many of Europe’s legacy airlines, Austrian Airlines among them, are experiencing bitter disputes with employees about cost cuts. But now that Austrian seems to have found a compromise with labor, management attention is shifting to fleet renewal and a sustainable model.
Indian LCC IndiGo has given Airbus its largest single order to date, for 250 new A320neos. A successful IPO in a still tumultuous air transport market will be key to fund the order—and it would cement IndiGo’s position as India’s leading domestic airline.
Airbus is close to launching an increased maximum-takeoff and long-range version of the A321neo that it seeks to position as a Boeing 757 replacement. The manufacturer is briefing potential customers, but has not yet made a decision to proceed. An Airbus official says the new version is still in a project study.
The strong pipeline of new products, many announced but some still to come, provided a boost in Honeywell’s latest forecast for the delivery of 9,450 business jets valued at $280 billion through 2024.
A spacecraft designed to test reentry techniques for a future lunar-sample return mission lifted off from the Xichang launch facility on a Long March 3C Oct. 23 (Oct. 24 local time) on a week-long mission that will take it around the Moon. Citing a spokesman for the China National Space Administration, China Daily’s English-language edition says the testbed will return to Earth after a swing around the Moon to test a “skip” reentry technique to bleed off velocity before a parachute touchdown in the Gobi Desert.
Moody’s Investors Service believes the European transport infrastructure industry will remain stable over the next 12-18 months on growth in traffic volume. “We expect EU airport passenger levels to grow by 2-6% in 2014 and 1-4% in 2015, mainly driven by an increase in airline capacity,” says senior Moody’s analyst Joanna Fic.
The steady drop in oil prices is not yet raising concerns at Boeing or on Wall Street that airlines will alter their emerging pattern of lining up a historically high percentage of new deliveries as replacements for less efficient, older-generation aircraft. “The price of oil still could fall a long way before our planes are anything but compelling,” Boeing Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney said last week.
Mergers and acquisitions activity in the U.S. aerospace and defense industry slowed in the third quarter, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Total deal volume slipped to the lowest level in 11 quarters, and was the weakest since the second quarter of 2005. The trend, reported by Aviation Week last month, comes as many A&D participants had once thought this year would mark the beginning of a wave of strategic M&A in Western industry. Divestitures continue to remain favorite business-shaping tools as companies divide or slice off divisions deemed non-core, slow-growth or worse.
