Andrew Doyle/LONDON
MESSIER-DOWTY AIMS to slash the cost of manufacturing Airbus landing gears by 20-40%, while increasing commonality of parts across the product range and reducing the cost of ownership for airlines, says Geoff Smith, managing director of the Anglo-French joint-venture.
According to Smith, a long-term goal is to co-operate with other manufacturers to offer landing gears with a high degree of commonality, across a range of Airbus, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas aircraft.
"We can see a real possibility of collaborating for a common gear. We've got to find a way of making it happen," he says, arguing that consolidation would lead to lower purchase costs for customers, despite there being fewer competitors.
Airframers, however, remain doubtful that commonality between different aircraft types could be achieved. Engineers point out that, although two aircraft types may have the same maximum take-off weight, they probably could not be fitted with similar landing gears because of the differing geometry (and therefore loading) of their structures.
Meanwhile, Messier-Dowty is understood to be concerned about the number of versions of the A330/340 landing gear, which could be required as the aircraft family is expanded, complicating product-support operations. It has held discussions with Airbus to try to agree a balance between minimising the weight of the gear required for each variant and maximising the number of common parts to reduce the cost of ownership.
"The situation is changing," says David Wood, engineering director at Messier-Dowty. "There is now a greater emphasis on trying to achieve commonality."
For example, Messier-Dowty was required to design separately the lightest possible landing gears for the 257t and 271t take-off- weight variants of the A340, to minimise direct operating costs.
In contrast, Boeing designed the baseline 777's landing gear to be suitable for heavier derivatives, and was able to compensate for the excess weight, by lightening the airframe elsewhere.
Following this trend, Messier-Dowty has carried out extensive tests showing that its existing gears would be suitable for the 260t and 275t growth versions of the A340.
Requirements for the A340 stretch are also being considered. "One possibility is to up-rate the centre gear," says Smith. This would allow the existing main gears to be retained.
Smith reveals that Messier-Dowty also plans to "absorb the cost" of installing the landing gear during final assembly of aircraft at Airbus' Toulouse site by stationing its own staff on the line to perform this task. As the company strives for further cuts in production costs, however, Smith admits that, "streamlining has moved more quickly in the UK than in France".
Messier-Dowty aims to rationalise production of Airbus landing gear.
Source: Flight International
