What's an A350?
 

What the hell is an A350?? I obviously haven't been reading Budgie News enough lately...

Hiya tired,

http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/a350/

eP

It's the Airbus response to the B787. Many class it as a warmed over A330 & are sceptical of it's advantages over B787.

Can anyone clarify to me the difference between A330 and A350? The look, nearly, the same; they have similar PAX No, range, speed....

A major difference is that the A350 will use the newer and more efficient engines manufactured by GE and RR that were developed for the 787. In the early stages the reception for the A350 was decidedly cool. To counter the initial reaction, Airbus made some design changes and the A350 is now much more than a warmed over A330.

While they may share many components, the difference between the A330 and the proposed A350 will be focused on economy of operation putting it up against the slightly more established 787 design.

So far Airbus reports almost 200 'commitments' for the new airplane (not bad for the new kid on the block) with a proposed launch date of 2010.

A330 : A350.....similar pax, similar range, 0.83 cruise (12-15mins quicker on an 9hr flight) burning 25% less fuel.

You can compare Airbus types here :
http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfam...roductcompare/

Range!
 

I also think that Airbus inted to add range to it´s two engine fleet, for it to be used Europe-Asia nonstop.
And the companies can probably use the same qualification during transit to save money. I fly 330/340 combined and it works perfectly well, its a nice aircraft, best I have flown so far. Though we have some problems with maximum ZFW(ZFM..) due to lots of cargo.

350 has relocated crew rest (into a smaller avionics bay) so they get a few extra pax seats that way.

Thanks a lot guys!

Plus it's the same fuselage so they're saving a few bucks by not having to start completely from scratch.