Boeing Cites 787 Progress As Airbus A350 Slips

787 Brake Issue Resolved

A350XWB Design Freeze Slips, Questions Arise Over EIS Target

During the last media briefing at the Farnborough Air Show, Boeing 787 VP and General Manager Patrick Shanahan outlined a number of pending issues being worked on Airplane #1 before the recent IAM strike that shut down Everett (and other) operations - rendering the possibility of a fourth quarter first flight all but impossible.

One key issue related the highly advanced software being re-written for the brakes of the 787 due to a traceability anomaly.

Crane Aerospace supplies the brake control and monitoring system for the 787 Dreamliner family, which is given to GE Aviation Systems (formerly Smiths Aerospace) as part of the overall landing gear system.

Image courtesy of Boeing

The 787 Brake Control and Monitoring System incorporates new technology, which Crane Aerospace & Electronics calls “Remote Integrated Braking Services “ (RIBS).

This technology integrates anti-skid control, brake temperature, wheel speed, and tire pressure indication functions in an electronic control unit located at each axle. The RIBS system features passive wireless, for tire pressure sensing, and non-contacting Hall Effect, for wheel speed sensing.

According to Chad Thorne, Director of Landing Systems Solutions, benefits of the new technology include superior cost and weight savings and excellent fault tolerance.

Greg Ward, president of Crane Aerospace & Electronics, stated, “The brake control system used on the 787 will become the foundation of our next generation of brake control, which will offer significant advantages to new aircraft. We are proud that this new technology will be incorporated on the Boeing 787.”

Boeing revealed exclusively to FleetBuzz Editorial.com that the brake software was now “no longer an issue.”

“The issues with the brake software are behind us, functionality required for flight test is in the labs and is working well. (The final “blue label” version — for flight test — is in the lab and is undergoing tests, all known software problems are resolved. The formal “red label” version will follow in two weeks. We plan on a service-ready update during flight test that adds some additional functionality including tire pressure, operator initiated test, and dataload),” said 787 spokeswoman Yvonne Leach.

Whilst Boeing has been grappling with the production cessation due to industrial action, across the Atlantic, things have not been going so well for European rival, Airbus.

Ominously missing from October 2008 was Airbus’ oft-stated target that design freeze of the first A350XWB variant, the -900 would be reached this month.

This has not happened.

According to sources working directly on the A350XWB programme, Airbus now only envisages a partial design freeze for the A350-900 and remains “non-committal” about when full freeze will take place.

Airbus A350XWB chief engineer Gordon McConnell stated that the milestone would be reached in October 2008 and since then, FleetBuzz Editorial.com has learned that design freeze for the first variant may slip as far out as the second quarter of 2009, damaging any remote prospect Airbus held for attaining service entry in 2013.

Image courtesy of Airbus

“The A350 has been relaunched more times than any other aircraft in the history of commercial aviation - it’s on its seventh iteration — yet it’s still probably six years from service entry,” says Arran Aerospace’s MD, Doug McVitie.

“It will be late, guaranteed,” he added.

Emirates and Qatar Airways, both big A350 customers have candidly spoken about their displeasure at the pace of development, weight issues and service entry targets - any slippage will likely incur their wrath, especially from Emirates which also has 56 A380’s on order.

“Airbus is now held to ransom in China and in the Middle East - in both cases a hostage to someone else’s fortune,” McVitie says.

Having watched the 787 Dreamliner slip and experience itself first hand the near two year pain of the delivery of the A380, any delays to the A350 will not be without serious consequences for Airbus, particularly given the exposure it has to big customers in the Middle East.

13 comments October 31st, 2008