Tag: Rolls-Royce (Page 3 of 4)

First A330-800 Takes To The Skies Over Toulouse, France

November 6, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

Toulouse, 06 November 2018 – The first A330-800 took off this morning at Blagnac in Toulouse, France at 10:31am local time, for its maiden flight taking place over south-western France. The aircraft, MSN1888, will perform the dedicated flight-physics tests required for this variant.

The crew in the cockpit comprise: Experimental Test Pilots Malcolm RIDLEY and François BARRE and Test-Flight Engineer Ludovic GIRARD. Meanwhile, monitoring the aircraft systems and performance in real-time at the flight-test-engineer’s (FTE) station are Catherine SCHNEIDER and Jose CORUGEDO BERMEJO. The A330-800’s certification development programme itself will last around 300 flight-test hours, paving the way for certification in 2019. Its sibling, the larger A330-900 family member, recently completed its development testing and certification programme which validated the A330neo Family’s common engines, systems, cabin and flight & ground operations.

Launched in July 2014, the latest generation of Airbus’ widebody family, the A330neo builds on the A330ceo’s proven economics, versatility and reliability while reducing fuel consumption by a further 14 per cent per seat. The NEO’s two versions – the A330-800 and A330-900 – will accommodate 257 and 287 passengers respectively in a three-class seating layout, are powered by the latest-generation Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines, offer new “Airspace” cabin amenities and feature a new larger span wing with Sharklet wingtip devices.

The A330 is one of the most popular widebody families ever, having received over 1,700 orders from 120 customers. More than 1,400 A330s are flying with over 120 operators worldwide. The A330neo is the latest addition to the leading Airbus widebody family, which also includes the A350 XWB and the A380, all featuring unmatched space and comfort combined with unprecedented efficiency levels and unrivalled range capability.

#A330neoFF

Story and image from www.airbus.com

Airbus 2018 Delivery Goal Questioned By Analysts

October 29, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Airbus (AIR.PA) will have to equal a record final quarter for deliveries if the European planemaker is going to meet its overall 2018 targets following a series of production setbacks.

Flight Ascend, a UK-based consultancy which monitors fleet developments worldwide, told aircraft investors in Hong Kong that Airbus may struggle to meet its target for 800 total aircraft deliveries this year.

And Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned said in a note that Airbus faced a shortfall in deliveries of its best-selling A320neo due to ongoing engine delays and operational problems.

The warnings came as Airbus prepares to post third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, when all eyes will be on whether it keeps its full-year target of 800 jet deliveries.

By end-September, Airbus was already facing a tough – though not unprecedented – challenge in meeting its full-year goal, a Reuters analysis of delivery data shows.

To meet the goal it would have to repeat exactly the record pattern of 2017, when 37 percent of the total number of annual deliveries were squeezed into the final quarter.

Airbus “usually pulls a rabbit out of the hat, so I wouldn’t bet against it,” a financial source familiar with the process said, adding delays had stressed the global aircraft industry.

For the first nine months, Airbus delivered 503 aircraft, leaving it once again with 37 percent of the targeted annual figure to accomplish in just three months.

The average achieved over that quarterly period in the past 10 years was 31 percent, according to a Reuters review of Airbus data.

Crucial to whether Airbus meets its goal is progress on best-selling single-aisle jets like the A320 and A321.

Commercial jets make up 76 percent of Airbus revenues, which are mostly paid on delivery, while aircraft lessors, who control around half the global fleet, lose $10,000 a day for a late A320-family jet, experts said.

Airbus does not publish separate delivery targets for single-aisle jets but Flight Ascend estimates this year’s target at around 630, leaving 76 a month to go in the last quarter.

“October numbers are sitting in the mid-50s which means it … is very challenging to reach the target for the end of year,” Ascend’s Ryan Hammacott told a Hong Kong seminar.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported Airbus faced new problems in producing the A321neo, a model central to its ambition to dominate the top end of the single-aisle market and thwart Boeing’s (BA.N) plans for a new mid-sized passenger jet.

Last week Rolls-Royce (RR.L) disclosed a shortfall in engine deliveries for the big A330neo.

Airbus planemaking president Guillame Faury last week confirmed Airbus was facing internal problems with the A321neo, but declined to discuss any impact on the delivery target.

Faury, who is the designated future Airbus chief executive has made stabilising deliveries a top priority.

Harned said stock markets may absorb a downgrade in the delivery target but would watch for any signs of stress in 2019.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Image from http://www.airbus.com

Lufthansa Is Giving Boeing a Shot at New Wide-Body Deal

October 22, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

(Bloomberg) — Deutsche Lufthansa AG is trying to decide whether to take its first Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliners, or to expand its fleet of Airbus SE’s marquee A350 wide-body jets as it updates its long-range aircraft, according to people familiar with the plans.

Lufthansa has requested proposals from both Airbus and Boeing, and is looking to order about 20 jets in a deal that may be finalized in the next few months, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private.

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Lufthansa Is Giving Boeing a Shot

Airbus Picks Guillaume Faury As Next CEO

October 8, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

PARIS (Reuters) – Planemaking boss Guillaume Faury was named as the next chief executive of Airbus on Monday, ending months of uncertainty over the leadership of Europe’s largest aerospace group and underlining the dominance of its commercial jet arm.

The 50-year-old Frenchman will replace German-born Tom Enders when he retires at the next shareholder meeting in April 2019, the Franco-German-Spanish company said in a statement.

Chairman Denis Ranque, a Frenchman, will step down when his own term expires in 2020, it added.

The announcement came after the board brought forward discussions on the handover amid a growing leadership vacuum in the wake of a series of management departures, internal and external graft probes and the pre-announced exit of Enders.

It did so as the board grappled with the need to avoid appearing indecisive following months of uncertainty over the top job and a string of mid-level and senior departures.

On Sept. 28, Reuters exclusively reported Airbus was moving swiftly towards appointing Faury as its next CEO and could announce a decision within weeks.

Faury was appointed head of the core planemaking business last December after Fabrice Bregier agreed to quit following a power battle with Enders, in a shake-up that also saw the German CEO draw back from plans to seek a third term in 2019.

Pressure to end uncertainty over the CEO job grew with the resignation of sales chief Eric Schulz in August, with the former Rolls-Royce executive’s abrupt departure strengthening calls for an internal successor to Enders..

FAURY SEEN COMBINING ROLES

A person close to Enders denied there had been any leadership vacuum since he announced his intention not to seek a third term and said he had remained involved in the business.

As CEO of the only serious rival to U.S. planemaker Boeing, Faury will continue to tackle industrial problems affecting some jet deliveries while overseeing smaller but increasingly autonomous helicopter and defence units.

People familiar with the matter said he would not be replaced in his current role, though this did not exclude shoring up the operational management as two top industrial executives prepare to retire at the end of this year.

The Airbus planemaking business merged with the parent group last year, but until now had maintained separate figureheads.

Faury will also need to restore morale shattered by a probe into the use of middlemen, now in its third year and which has left management sidelined as board directors pilot the inquiry.

Airbus said its board would begin selecting a new chairman “in due course”, with a view to “maintaining international diversity” at board and management level.

Sources said last month that Faury’s hiring could herald changes in the board as Ranque would step down in 2020.

Airbus usually divides chairman and CEO jobs between French and German nationals, though the ability of Paris and Berlin governments to dish out top jobs for purely political reasons was halted in 2013. Although their power is curtailed and Airbus claims full independence, the two governments each maintain a voice as 11-percent shareholders and major defence buyers.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Keith Weir and Mark Potter)

Image from: www.airbus.com

Electric Airplane Startup Zunum Chooses Safran Engine

October 4, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Aircraft manufacturer Zunum, backed by Boeing Co, will use an engine turbine from France’s Safran SA to power an electric motor for the hybrid regional airplane it aims to bring into service in 2022, the company said on Thursday.

Zunum, based near Seattle, is among several companies seeking to reduce emissions, noise and travel costs with electric planes, underscoring growing investment in lightweight propulsion systems to bring the benefits of electric-cars to the sky.

Siemens AG, Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC, and Airbus SA joined forces last year on a hybrid electric aircraft propulsion system, while Honeywell International Inc has developed a high-capacity generator that could be used for electric flight.

Zunum, which is also funded by JetBlue Airways Corp’s investment arm, will offer its 12-seat, 700-mile aircraft – dubbed the ZA10 – to charter airlines, private companies and regional carriers globally, starting in 2022.

Zunum’s planes will be battery powered, with a jetfuel-powered turbogenerator to extend range. It chose the Safran Helicopter Engines’ Ardiden 3Z turbine over competing turbines from General Electric, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls Royce.

The ZA10 will cost less than $300 million to develop, compared to the billions of dollars required to bring a traditional regional jet to market, Zunum’s Chief Executive Officer Ashish Kumar told Reuters.

Norway in June tested a two-seater electric plane, built by Pipistrel in Slovenia, and predicted a start to passenger flights by 2025 as the country moves to reach a government goal of making all domestic flights in Norway electric by 2040.

“This is the future,” Kumar said. “This class of aircraft is going to replace conventional airplanes over these (short-haul) distances.”

Siemens’ e-aircraft unit told Reuters earlier this year its system will work like a Toyota Prius: a gas-fueled engine inside the plane will spin a generator, sending electricity to small propulsion motors on the wings.

In Zunum’s plane, those motors are powered by the battery packs and the turbogenerator installed near the rear of the fuselage.

Kumar said the new aircraft will deliver operating costs of 8 cents per available seat mile or $250 per hour, which is 60-80 percent lower than comparable conventional aircraft.

Zunum’s prototype motor is due to be tested in early December, with an improved version flying on a test aircraft in summer 2019, Kumar said. Conversely, the Airbus, Siemens, Rolls-Royce system is scheduled to begin test flights in 2020.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle)

Image from https://zunum.aero/

Airbus Sales Head Quits After Less Than One Year

September 13, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

PARIS, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Airbus named its second new sales chief in less than a year on Thursday after chief commercial officer Eric Schulz resigned nine months after being poached from Rolls-Royce to lead the battle for jet sales against Boeing.

The European planemaker said Christian Scherer, head of turboprop maker ATR, an Airbus veteran who had been beaten to the job by Schulz in November last year, would take over the position immediately, reporting to Chief Executive Tom Enders.

Reuters earlier exclusively reported that Schulz was expected to resign. Airbus said his decision had been taken for personal reasons.

The switch comes as Airbus faces a slowdown in sales and delays and reliability problems with engines that have soured relations with several customers and left the Frenchman increasingly frustrated, the people said.

Schulz could not be reached for comment.

The former head of Rolls-Royce civil jet engines was picked for the high-profile post after Airbus bungled efforts to name an internal successor to John Leahy, the U.S.-born sales kingpin who eventually retired earlier this year.

Schulz’s appointment had been designed in part to bring in outside blood as Airbus endured turmoil over the impact of UK and French corruption investigations.

Some saw him as a potential candidate to replace Enders when he steps down next year.

But Schulz’s tenure was plagued by delays in delivering planes, a growing shortfall in orders compared to Boeing and a malaise in the Airbus marketing machine as a result of British and French probes, which have also sparked a blanket internal investigation.

Multiple sources had also reported a power battle between Schulz and Guillaume Faury, president of the planemaking division, who is the leading internal contender to replace Enders.

“I think (Schulz) understood which way the wind was blowing,” a person familiar with the matter said.

Another person close to the company acknowledged those tensions but denied they had triggered Schulz’s decision to leave.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Geert De Clercq)

Aston Martin Takes To The Skies

July 27, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

Aston Martin aims to bring luxury private transport to the sky with its Volante Vision Concept aircraft – a flying autonomous, hybrid-electric vehicle that can take off vertically.

This is the first time the British car brand, traditionally known for its luxury sports cars, has ventured into aircraft design.

Named after the Italian word for flying, the Volante was debuted on 16 July 2018 at the Farnborough Air Show, alongside other aircraft designs including Boeing’s hypersonic aircraft concept.

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Aston Martin Takes To The Skies

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Aston Martin Volante video

Rolls-Royce Reveals Electric Flying Concept Vehicle

July 24, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

British aerospace company Rolls-Royce is developing a personal electric flying vehicle that it says could be on the market by the early 2020s.

The company revealed the concept at last weekend’s Farnborough International Airshow, where it said it was looking for strategic partners to help it realise its vision for electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL).

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Rolls-Royce Reveals Electric Flying Concept Vehicle

Image from www.dezeen.com

First Cathay Pacific A350-1000 Completes Test Flight

May 3, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

03 MAY, 2018 FROM: FLIGHT DASHBOARD LONDON

The first of 20 A350-1000s for Cathay Pacific has completed its initial test flight from Airbus’s Toulouse plant. Deliveries of the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered aircraft to the Hong Kong carrier are scheduled to begin in June. It will become the second operator after launch customer Qatar Airways to receive Airbus’s biggest twinjet.

The new twinjets will be operated alongside Cathay’s existing fleet of smaller A350-900s, 22 of which are currently in service with six more on order, according to Flight Fleets Analyzer.

Cathay will deploy the A350-1000 on its new route to Washington DC from September. The airline says that at “8,153 miles” (7,095nm/13,126km), the new service to Dulles will become the longest in its network.

Airbus (via Cathay Pacific)

Airbus fights to defend A330neo market

March 6, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

PARIS (Reuters) – Imminent airline decisions on $10 billion of wide-body plane orders could influence the fate of Airbus’ (AIR.PA) A330neo even before the recently upgraded jet completes flight trials, industry sources said.

American Airlines said in January it was reviewing the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and shorter-range Airbus A330-900, which is in test flights before entering service this summer.

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Airbus fights to defend A330neo market

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