Airbus redisgns A350: wider cabin, longer range

[rotornut]

Airbus' redesigned A350 to exceed Boeing 787's range: WSJ

By Aude Lagorce
Last Update: 3:49 AM ET Jul 14, 2006

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Airbus' redesigned A350 aircraft, likely to be unveiled at the Farnborough Air Show next week, will match the speed of Boeing's 787 and slightly exceeding its range, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing confidential Airbus marketing documents. The A350 cabin will become slightly wider than that of Dreamliner, seating nine passengers in each row instead of the eight planned in the earlier version, the report said. Airbus is 80% owned by European defense company EADS.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7bC51F956A-DC4F-487E-881B-A4779A9F5B9B%7d&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo

[angels]

Ooh! A 3-3-3 config.

As pax I can't wait.....

Reckon that Boeing have totally sussed Airbus on this one. With 380 fiasco it rather seems like re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

[CaptJ]

Or 2-5-2, like a Boeing 777? Oh the luxury of that middle seat:(

Isn't the 777 the best aircraft in the world? Except for the passengers in economy. I hope to gawd that Airbus doesn't do this. It's rubbish, give me the 2-4-2 of the A330 or the 2-3-2 of the 767 anyday.

[Taildragger67]

Pardon my ignorance (and being too lazy to try boeing.com), but what's the 787 in cattle - 8 or 9 across?

[rotornut]

More details:

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060714:M TFH38944_2006-07-14_14-10-09_L14781389&type=comktNews&rpc=44

[chornedsnorkack]

Pardon my ignorance (and being too lazy to try boeing.com), but what's the 787 in cattle - 8 or 9 across?

Despite Boeing´s advertizing - 9 for most customers.

As for widebodies:
Boeing 747 (650 cm wide outside, 610 cm inside) started with 9 abreast, 3-4-2. However, soon it was 3-4-3 pretty universally.

DC-10 (602 cm outside) often flew 8 abreast, 2-4-2 in coach. However, 9 abreast soon appeared - as did 10 abreast, like 3-4-3. You can still enjoy 3-4-3 in many MD-11s, like Finnair Coach.

Tristar (597 cm outside) also often flew 8 abreast - and 9 abreast and 10 abreast soon appeared.

A300 (564 cm outside) mostly kept 8 abreast. But not always: there are 9 abreast 300/330 planes around, although still few.

B767 (503 cm outside) is mostly 7 abreast - but 8 abreast 767-s exist. They are still few.

B777 (619 cm outside) is mostly 9 abreast, but 10 abreast is obviously possible, as it is on DC-10 and Tristar.

B787 is 574 cm outside. Most customers want 9 abreast like on many Tristars, not 8 abreast like on A350.

[ETOPS773]

All very nice for the A350, but for now their long range fleet is looking rather quaint, and their credibility has been shot to pieces.

I feel sorry for them :* They are stuck with the A340-500 & 600 which blue chip airlines no longer want to take (ie Emirates) and have been completely outgunned by the 777-200LR and 777-300ER. To make things worse, there is nothing between the A340s and the A380.

Maybe this is what the extra width will be for? A wider, twin engined, A340-600 length "A350-1000"??? Now that with some updated RR Trents or GP72xxs would be a very able donkey indeed :ok:

I've got to hand it to Boeing and the 787 - they really caught Airbus napping :(