The A330-800 has limited chance of being as efficent as the B787
From looking at the boeing website, it states that the B787 is about 30,000 to 40,000 thousand pounds lighter than the A330-200. If this is true, I don't see how an A350 can possibly be as efficent as a B787.
The problem with the A330 airframe
Have a look at the airbus A330 airframe. The problem with the A330 airframe is that the wing was a optimized for both twin and quad engines.
Ever noticed with the same wing the A330-200 has MTOW of 509,000lb and the A340-300 gets 606,000lb ?
This is becuase in a quad jet, the outboard placement two CFM's help reduce the stress placed on the center wing box structure. This allows the plane to support more mass in the fueslague. In the A340, this meant that a center fuel tank, center MLG, could be inconcorperated.
Only the later A330-200 had a center fuel tank. BUT if you noticed. The OEW (270,000lb + Max fuel (242,000lb is almost = MTOW (~507,000lb). (i.e. the center gas tank in only useful for a Military Tanker, surprize, surprize)
(This was the same with the 777, The original 777-200 A market does not have center fuel tank. Only the later strengthed HGW ,772ER and 773 had it, but it added 5,000lb extra weight )
What Airbus has to do to give the A330 airframe 8000NM range with a useful payload
Airbus basically needs to increase the MTOW of the A330-200/A350-800 by 250pax x 210lb = 52500lb
They might need to increase fuel tank size by from the current 36,872 gallons by say 5000 gallons to just below 42,000 gallons. That is 33,500lb more weight. (for ref. b777-200ER has 45,000 gallons)
The A330-800 will basically need a MTOW increase from the current A330-200 MTOW of 509,000lb to at least 560,000 to 595,000lb minus the weight of a new composite wing ~ this is very close to a A340-300.
Inorder to extend the range of the twin jet A330/A350 airbus will have to.
+ Increase the MTOW the aircraft so that it can actully lift a useful payload along with all the gas.
+This will probably mean new landing gear.
+Slight increase in fuel tank capacity.
The only way this can be achived with a new wing.
This new wing will most likely
+ Have a slightly larger volume for larger wing tank size.
+ Much Stronger Wing Box section to support higher MTOW in twin jet design.
+ More powerful engines to support the increased MTOW. my guess is 85,000lb class.
This new wing will most likely increase the weight the A350-800 .
If airbus choose to decide to increase the fuel tank capacity by 5000 Gal, then the A350-900 will really give the B777-200ER and a hard time.... so don't be surprized if Boeing have considered 65M to 70M derivatives of the B787 ...
By comparision, the B777 airframe MTOW has grown from 535,000lb to 766,000lb, at the cost of around 25,000lb weight gain. (thats over the weight of standard 100 pax).
Last edited by JetDriverWannabe; 5th Mar 2005 at 19:22.