Airbus A320 Replacement -- China's Own Commercial Aircraft Industry

[Kai Tak]

I've posted both of these articles in the Airbus vs. Boeing thread, but I felt these deserved a little extra recognition and debate/thoughts from everyone.

[Kai Tak]

Airbus To Launch New Generation Of Planes

Xinhua - 9/1/06

Noel Forgeard, co-chief executive of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), parent company of Airbus, announced Monday here that European aircraft maker Airbus plans to launch a new generation of planes.

The new planes will be built with light, composite materials to help increase fuel efficiency and to replace the small, medium-range and single-aisle A320 family, he said at a news conference.

"If kerosene is very expensive, what is important is to have an ultra-light plane, even if the cost of production is higher," he said.

"Today we are actively preparing the launch -- at a date I'm not going to reveal -- of new generations of medium-range aircraft with fuselages that are mostly made out of composite materials with very low-cost production," he said.

The main challenge for 2008-09 would be to produce these low-cost composite materials, he said.

The European company received 579 orders for the A320 for the 11 months to end-November 2005, while Boeing recorded 569 orders for its rival model, the Boeing 737, over the whole of last year.

Forgeard said that Airbus' budget for research on new technologies has been doubled to 450 million euros per year from 2006 and in 2007-08.

Airbus is 80-percent owned by EADS and 20-percent by British BAE-system.

[Kai Tak]

China Plans To Clip Wings Of Air Giants

The Age - 10/1/06

China is launching a challenge to Boeing and Airbus for dominance of the global aircraft industry and plans to build its first mid-size passenger jet within a decade.

Beijing wants to build a 175-seat mid-range jet to meet demand for air travel in the region. The Chinese-designed plane would rival the Boeing 737 workhorse and the Airbus A319, A320 and A321 models.

Beijing's defence and technology commission, COSTIND, plans to spend £3 billion ($A7 billion) on a five-year development project starting in 2010. China is the third-biggest air travel market in the world after the US and Europe. In 2004 it had 120 million passengers.

A senior Chinese aviation official said the country was in a "rush" to build its own aircraft before demand peaked during the next 20 years. The jet is being designed to fly 1000-kilometre hops linking the country's three biggest growth and industry hot spots: the Hong Kong-Guangzhou region, the Yangtse Delta around Shanghai, and the north-east region of Bohai.

China is already buying a sixth of all new aircraft production, but there is a three-year backlog of orders. While the aircraft project makes commercial sense, it is hard to separate from global power politics and may cause nervousness in the US, Europe and Japan.

COSTIND's main job is to manage technology for the Chinese armed forces, which have become increasingly assertive in the region.

China is moving into aircraft production on several fronts. The state-owned China Aviation Industry Corporation is building a turbofan ERJ145 in a joint venture with Brazil's Embraer.

But it is also drawing up detailed blueprints for a Chinese-designed ARJ21 short-haul commuter aircraft, scheduled for as early as 2008.

At the same time, Airbus is committed to plans for a Chinese assembly plant that could entail a major transfer of sensitive technology. The agreement was extracted by Beijing last month as quid pro quo for a £9 billion purchase of 150 mid-range A320 jets by five Chinese companies, the biggest ever bloc sale of Airbus jets.

Shaanxi province is emerging as the hub of a flourishing 130,000-strong aerospace sector, the latest evidence of the country's rapid move beyond the low-tech industries in textile and simple electronics.

[Kai Tak]

- It's great to hear that Airbus will be replacing the A320 family with a new composite aircraft. For most of us, these are the aircraft we fly on most often, and more composites mean higher cabin humidity, which makes for a much more comfortable ride, [I always thought the best selling point of the 787 was its 60% cabin humidity. If you're not aware, flying on today's aircraft yields roughly 5-10% humidity. Imagine not being dry as a bone on a plane!] I'd expect Boeing to announce a similar project by years' end at the latest, completing their Yellowstone project with "Y1" - a 737 replacement.

- With regards to China, it seems like the right project at the right time. Air travel is growing by leaps and bounds in their country, and to me at least, there appears to be plenty of market share for a third major competitor to the 737 and A320. I think it'll also be important for this new aircraft to have a very similar design, especially flight deck and heavy maintenance, to either Boeing or Airbus. Fleet commonality is a big part of airlines cutting costs, and an aircraft which would allow a marginal increase in training and maintenance could allow it to compete with airlines looking for a full range of aircraft sizes, something they can't offer immediately.

[mic of Orion]

nice one, Chinese airlines are growing very fast.

[hkskyline]

Airbus: A320s Won't Be Replaced Until 2015
12 January 2006

LONDON (Dow Jones)--European aircraft manufacturer Airbus Industries (ABI.YY) won't replace its A320 aircraft series until 2015 at the earliest, an Airbus spokeswoman said Thursday.

She said research and development is continuing and the company would like to create a new series that is similar to the best-selling Airbus A320 series, but reports that this might lead to new models soon were incorrect.

Noel Forgeard, former chief executive of Airbus and current CEO of Airbus parent company European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (5370.FR), said earlier this week that the company would be doing research on developing a composite makeup for a potential next generation of the single-aisle A320 aircraft. That research wouldn't be complete before 2009, Forgeard added.

Airbus is 80% owned by EADS, with U.K.-based defense contractor BAE Systems PLC (BA.LN) owning the remaining 20%.

[Kai Tak]

I saw that yesterday too. Disappointing.