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It seems Boeing are not the only ones with major delays in their system. The last paragraph (on page 2) of the article is also of interest to those concerned with the A380 wing crack issues.
Airbus A350 Development Hitting Snags
Mar 9, 2012
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[TD="class: storyAuthor, align: left"]By Jens Flottau
Paris[/TD]
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Late last year, Airbus shifted its A350 schedule by six months. But increasingly, suppliers are expressing concerns that a more serious delay could be just around the corner.
Airbus will be forced to postpone its entry-into-service date by at least another year, due to the complex trickle-down effect of late design changes that is affecting various parts of the aircraft, but which is likely felt most painfully in the area of cabin installation, according to various industry sources. Costs are going up and supplier relations are being strained exponentially.
“The systems side is a nightmare,” says one CEO of a major Airbus supplier. “The interiors will be late by at least one year,” he believes. That does not mean that first flight is necessarily affected that much, because the initial flight tests will not need a functional cabin anyway. The full effect would not be felt until later in the flight-test campaign, when cabin testing is included.
The massive amount of redesign and the resulting delays are also understood to have led to significantly higher development costs. There is no clear picture about the precise amount, and Airbus will not address the issue. But one executive believes the total overruns might by now have reached €3.5 billion ($4.6 billion). According to Airbus’s standard supplier contracts, additional costs up through the critical design review stage, which was reached for many individual parts last year, are to be covered by suppliers. But at least one Airbus partner—Diehl Aerosystems—now wants the manufacturer to participate in the cost overruns.[/TD]
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Airbus A350 Development Hitting Snags
Mar 9, 2012
[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="class: storyAuthor, align: left"]By Jens Flottau
Paris[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: left"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: storyBody, align: left"]
Late last year, Airbus shifted its A350 schedule by six months. But increasingly, suppliers are expressing concerns that a more serious delay could be just around the corner.
Airbus will be forced to postpone its entry-into-service date by at least another year, due to the complex trickle-down effect of late design changes that is affecting various parts of the aircraft, but which is likely felt most painfully in the area of cabin installation, according to various industry sources. Costs are going up and supplier relations are being strained exponentially.
“The systems side is a nightmare,” says one CEO of a major Airbus supplier. “The interiors will be late by at least one year,” he believes. That does not mean that first flight is necessarily affected that much, because the initial flight tests will not need a functional cabin anyway. The full effect would not be felt until later in the flight-test campaign, when cabin testing is included.
The massive amount of redesign and the resulting delays are also understood to have led to significantly higher development costs. There is no clear picture about the precise amount, and Airbus will not address the issue. But one executive believes the total overruns might by now have reached €3.5 billion ($4.6 billion). According to Airbus’s standard supplier contracts, additional costs up through the critical design review stage, which was reached for many individual parts last year, are to be covered by suppliers. But at least one Airbus partner—Diehl Aerosystems—now wants the manufacturer to participate in the cost overruns.[/TD]
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