New airliner development has been a rollercoaster ride since the turn of the century, with flagship programmes on both sides of the Atlantic suffering major delays.
Although Airbus is resolute it will be different with its next big jet, after the dramas of the A380 and the ongoing crises with Boeing's Dreamliner and 747-8, some cynics think that the XWB is also set to disappoint in its schedule adherence.
"Lessons learned", "system maturity" and "robust plan" are all buzzwords at Airbus these days. Having spent almost two years dithering before the XWB reached the launch pad, the airframer has pulled out all the stops to re-invent its processes to prevent further delays. This started with fundamentals like making sure all the design teams are using the same computer- aided design software - a villain in the A380 debacle.
The ultra-large airliner was admittedly a daunting undertaking for Airbus - not only because of its size and complexity but also because of the far-reaching structural changes that the company decided to go through in parallel - so it should have been no surprise that the programme was nearly two years late.
Boeing can point to similar excuses for the Dreamliner saga. It realised the 787 gave it the golden opportunity for the long overdue revamp of its production system. But this meant that the complete re-invention of how the company went about building aircraft was undertaken in parallel with construction of the world's first carbonfibre airliner. A challenge that, looking back, made its current woes inevitable.
But Airbus likes its challenges too. It is resolute in its intention to develop three XWB variants consecutively spanning the 270- to 350-seat sizes. Not since the A330/A340 family was in development two decades ago has such an ambitious parallel undertaking been attempted. Remember it was not that long ago that Airbus had to call time on the A380 Freighter to concentrate on the passenger variant, while Boeing has suffered similar headaches with its 787 family plan.
When former Airbus president Jean Pierson once judged Flight International's Aerospace Industry Awards, he dismissed new A330 and 767 variants that were "on time and on budget". This was a prerequisite rather than an achievement to be rewarded, he said.
The two companies' recent track records indicates that the reverse is now the case, but Airbus has the power to prove the cynics wrong.
Source: Flight International
