Airbus believes low-cost composites will be key to winning the next-generation narrowbody battle with Boeing and plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars developing the technology.
Noel Forgeard, co-chief executive of Airbus majority owner EADS, confirmed last week that the European manufacturer is “preparing to launch” a successor to the A320 family. He said designing new lightweight materials at an affordable cost was “the big challenge” facing Airbus and the industry.
Airbus has chosen to use fewer composites in the A350 than Boeing has in the 787, with the material making up around 41% of the mid-size airliner’s construction, compared with 60% for its US rival. However, speaking at a press lunch in Paris, the former Airbus chief executive suggested Boeing’s decision to use so much composite material in the 787 had been “not quite a success”.
The future price of fuel would drive the development of cheaper composites, he said. “If fuel is very expensive, we will need to have an ultra-light aircraft, even if the cost is higher. We will be ready to react. We are working very hard on composites.”
Forgeard said EADS’s other priorities included developing “new-generation military satellites” and reacting to a “strategic revolution” in network-centric warfare.
He said EADS would continue to pursue a “global industrialisation strategy” by increasing investments in markets such as China and Russia, a move that was about harnessing skills in, and boosting exports to, these countries rather than simply seeking cheaper labour. “I am in favour of globalisation,” he said. “It is about creating jobs in Europe, not destroying them.”
EADS’s recent purchase of a 10% stake in Russian manufacturer Irkut would create “the founding block of the aerospace industry” in that country, he said.
Foregeard also hinted strongly that a merger with Thales – which he urged last year just before becoming EADS co-chief executive – is still on the agenda. “I cannot comment on public companies...but I don’t usually change my mind,” he said, adding that EADS managers had been told not to comment on the subject.
Forgeard acknowledged that sharing the chief executive role with his German counterpart, Tom Enders, was a challenge. Forgeard, when boss of Airbus last year, had lobbied hard to be made sole chief executive when the original pairing, Philippe Camus and Rainer Hertrich, left office. “Seeking consensus on every topic is hard,” he said. “We are of different backgrounds. Tom is more of an Anglo-Saxon. We get on well and talk to each other every day. But it is more hard than if we were running the company on our own.”
MURDO MORRISON/PARIS
Source: Flight International
