Within a few days, an order was placed by Singapore Airlines for 20 of the new jet with options for 20 more. This could have been fueled by an erroneous advertisement run by Airbus on the Financial Times website. There was a rumour that the new aircraft would be designated the A370 or even the A280.
CEO Gustav Humbert indicated that Airbus was not looking for quick solutions and was looking for solutions, not for the short term but ones that would take aviation into the future.ġ 4 July 2006: Once again at the Farnborough Airshow Airbus announced the new completely redesigned aircraft would be designated the Airbus A350 XWB (Extra Wide Body). It was seen as a knee-jerk reaction to the Boeing 787 and this could only lead to a loss of market share to Boeing who was seen to be leading the technology charge. The Airbus A350 XWB could be seen as a knee-jerk reaction to the Boeings 787 Dreamliner, however, the longer A350 1000 XWB is also a direct competitor to Boeings' popular 777, as well as a replacement for the Airbus discontinued A340 series.Ģ8 March 2006: Airbus was severely taken to task by International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), Singapore Airlines and many other industry heavyweights over their proposed A350.
The Airbus A350 History page gives more details, however, in short, Airbus went away and sharpened their pencils, committed more development funds and the result that has been fixed on and widely accepted by customers is the A350 XWB family of aircraft. They were very quickly told by prospective customers that this would not be enough. Airbus, like Boeing, was being pressured to produce a new offering using newer technology in materials and construction to produce a product that would reduce their airline customers’ overhead costs.Īirbus floated the idea initially of using their existing and popular Airbus A330 twin-engine mid-sized jet and re-engineering it using new materials and construction methods. The new Airbus A350 XWB (Extra Wide Body) family of aircraft is no different. The process of bringing a new aircraft design to fruition is a long and torturous path as well as hugely expensive. Today's economic climate is driving the need for reduced operating costs, and airlines are very vocal in their pressure on aircraft manufacturers to deliver a more cost-effective product, as well as one that complies with stricter noise reduction requirements at our urban airports. Boeing has at last brought to market its all-new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with radical improvements in construction techniques as well as materials used. We are about to enter an age of new ways in the sky.Īirbus has shown us new ways of construction with the introduction of the Airbus A380 Super-Jumbo, with its carbon polymer wing construction. To the travelling public, some of those have been less obvious perhaps, other than new and better in-flight entertainment options. The quest for technological improvements is all around us, and not least of those are the improvements in the aviation field. One could be forgiven for seeing the mid-size passenger jet market as a Boeing 787 vs Airbus A350 competition. This is a very similar direction taken by Boeing with their Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Its construction involves the use of new composite materials as well as new construction methods. The remarkable thing about this airliner is the steps forward it represents in technology improvements. Visit our A350 Specs section below to see the actual dimensions. When we say wide body, the XWB in the name actually stands for eXtra Wide Body. It is a mid-sized twin-engined wide-body airliner that comes in 3 variants, A350 800, A350 900, and A350 1000. The Airbus A350 is Airbus' latest offering to the passenger air transport market.
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