#13 - Quick news - October 2016

The fatigue test simulates the conditions an aircraft experiences throughout its operational life, including a range of flights. A simulated 'flight' starts off at the gate in the airport, is pushed back, taxis out to the runway, makes its take-off run, reaches cruise altitude and then towards the end of the flight, makes its landing approach and experiences a bump as it lands, then 'travels' back to the gate. A range of loads are applied to the aircraft using hydraulic jacks to simulate a statistical mix of conditions - such as smooth flight or turbulence during each mission. Overall the two and a half years of testing was equivalent to 72 years in service.

Photo: A350 fatigue test rig

A350-900 in-service with nine operators; Second A350-1000 completed
The number of in-service A350-900s continues to grow, and already more than 3.5 million passengers have flown on the type since commercial operations began in early 2015. Nine airlines currently operate the A350 XWB - Qatar Airways, Vietnam Airlines, Finnair, LATAM Airlines Group, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Thai Airways International and China Airlines - the fifth carrier to receive its first A350 XWB this year. Most recently, on 11th October, Airbus delivered Thai Airways' second A350 (MSN050), bringing total deliveries since the type's entry-into-service to 42 aircraft for the nine customers.

In commercial service, the global A350 XWB fleet is stretching its wings. Currently performing approximately 2,000 flight cycles per month, the A350 has since its debut flown on 50 regular service routes in a network spanning the globe. Facilitating this early in-service phase is the close relationship of Airbus' support teams and local field service representatives with operators, backed by the aircraft's advanced on-board systems to better monitor and anticipate technical issues, as well as the extensive testing performed by Airbus during the development and certification stages. To date the A350 XWB programme has garnered 810 total firm orders from 43 customers.

Turning to the A350-900's 'big sister', the A350-1000, all three flight-test aircraft are at various stages of completion. Most recently, the second example to be built - flight-test aircraft MSN065 - 'rolled-out' from the paint shop in Toulouse. MSN065 will take part in the certification campaign as the only A350-1000 flight test aircraft to be equipped with a full passenger cabin. It will perform cabin and air systems tests, along with the early long flights and route proving in 2017. Meanwhile, MSN059, the first A350-1000 test aircraft, was recently fitted with its engines and will soon undergo a preparatory phase of tests and is on track for its first flight in Q4 2016. As the longest member of the A350 XWB Family, the A350-1000 will typically seat 366 passengers in a three-class configuration. Delivery of the first A350-1000 customer aircraft is scheduled for the second half of 2017.
Photo: A350-1000 flight-test aircraft no.2 (MSN065) rolls-out from paintshop;

Photo: A350-1000 flight-test aircraft no.1 (MSN059) with engines recently installed.

The new member of the A330 Family, the A330neo takes shape
The first A330neo entered final assembly on 27th September and work then commenced on the wing join-up to the centre fuselage. This milestone was achieved on-schedule, as planned over two years ago. Notably, it has taken only 26 months to deliver components with the same level of quality as serial aircraft and with all flight test instrumentation installed. Once the initial A330-900 is structurally complete, the next milestones for the A330neo programme will include: the electrical systems' power-on of the first aircraft; engine installation and the associated ground-based tests; entry into the FAL of the second A330-900 test aircraft in November; assembly of TAP's first aircraft to start a few months later; and afterwards the first A330-800 flight test aircraft will enter the FAL. Overall A330neo final assembly is very similar to that of the A330ceo, using the same work stations. Nevertheless, some stations are adapted to accommodate new features of the A330neo - notably its new pylons, larger engines, larger wingspan and wing-tip Sharklets. The goal is for each workstation to be able to handle assembly of either the 'CEO' or 'NEO' A330 version. On the powerplant side, the manufacturer Rolls-Royce recently began assembling the first Trent 7000 flight-test engines, while testing on development units is being performed concurrently.

The A330-900 will typically seat 287 passengers in a three-class configuration and fly up to 6,550 nautical miles. Meanwhile, the A330-800 will seat around 257 passengers in a three-class configuration and fly up to 7,500 nautical miles. To date the A330neo programme has received 186 firm orders from 10 customers - seven airlines and three lessors.
Photo: A330neo in FAL

First A320neo deliveries to the Americas, as in-service fleet surpasses 25 aircraft; Performance exceeding targets
The in-service fleet of A320neo aircraft has now surpassed 25 aircraft with nine operators on three continents: Europe, Asia and the Americas. The first example recently delivered into the Americas was for LATAM Airlines (Brazil) in August, followed by Volaris (Mexico) in September and VivaAerobus (Mexico) on 4th October (photo link below). Furthermore, the first delivery of an A320neo to a US operator - Spirit Airlines - occurred on 7th October (photo link below). The 26 aircraft delivered at the time of writing comprise (in order of first delivery): Lufthansa: four; Indigo: 10; GoAir: two; Pegasus: four; LATAM: one; AirAsia: two; Volaris: one; VivaAerobus: one; and Spirit Airlines: one. To date the A320neo in-service fleet has accumulated more than 15,000 revenue flight hours and 11,500 flight cycles - with up to 11 hours daily utilisation. In terms of its demonstrated performance, following the successful flight-test results and in-service experience feedback, the A320neo is meeting or exceeding targets in key areas: The overall weight is 'on spec'; the promised 15%+ fuel burn savings and +500nm range increase (versus the A320ceo) is confirmed; the low-speed performance is better than initially targeted while the certified external noise level is even quieter. With more than 4,800 orders received from 87 customers since its launch in 2010, the A320neo Family has captured a 60 percent share of the market.

Photo: Delivery of first A320neo to VivaAerobus (4th October)

Photo: Delivery of first A320neo to Spirit Airlines (7th October)
2. INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY
Airbus readies cockpit EFB secure wireless interface & communication unit for A320 and A330 families
Airbus is readying a new EFB* Interface and Communication Unit (EICU) for the A320 and A330 programmes. To become available as a line-fit or retrofit solution, the EICU will wirelessly and securely connect a pilot's tablet or laptop to aircraft systems and airline flight operations. The system works during on-ground and inflight operations and is enabled by a small Wi-Fi antenna located in the cockpit, connected to the unit, which is placed in the main avionics bay. In addition, on the ground pilots will be able to access, via a Gatelink connection, various take-off calculations without having to manually input data. And for in-flight use pilots will be able to communicate with their flight operations team via satellite communications (SATCOMs) to obtain the latest weather and maintenance updates. Flight crew will also be able to view current flight management system (FMS) parameters, obtain real-time positioning, fuel remaining and consumption rates. The EICU, which will be an option on A320/A330 families, is being developed by Airbus' multi-functional, plateau-based team together with Rockwell Collins at their facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The system is being manufactured to Airbus' stringent development standards. Moreover, for new aircraft, Airbus will line-fit the system, while for in-service aircraft a retrofit option will become available. The EICU will enter into service on an A320 family aircraft in 2017. *EFB="Electronic Flight Bag"

Airbus' Stade factory introduces 'MiRA' augmented-reality tool for more efficient parts installation on A350 XWB
The production of A350 XWB fuselage shells at Airbus' plant in Stade, Germany, is now being aided by an innovative 'mixed-augmented reality application' called "MiRA". The system facilitates and accelerates the precise positioning of brackets. Whereas production staff previously used to manually progress through the installation steps, now, a projector casts a 3D image on the fuselage which is based on data from the digital mock-up (DMU) and shows them the exact position for the bracket. Additional information, such as part numbers, is displayed on the technicians' tablet PCs, enabling them to pick the 'right' bracket every time. Another key advantage with the MiRA projection is that two work steps - installation and demonstration of the correct geometry - are merged into one. Overall processing time for bracket installation has been reduced by 30 percent while achieving 'right-first-time' quality. MiRA was launched with involvement from Airbus Group Innovations in Suresnes, Paris, project representatives from Hamburg, Engineering, and the Stade production organisation. It was first used on the Airbus shopfloor in Saint Nazaire on A350 MSN01 for inspection tasks and shortly after in the A380 programme. Since then, MiRA has been continuously enhanced.

Photo: A350 assembly uses 'MiRA' augmented reality

"Wing of the future" - staying ahead of the curve
A plateau-based team at Airbus' Filton site in the UK is bringing together the company's wing expertise from across Europe as part of its 'Wing of the future' research initiative. Launched in 2015 and supported by the UK Government-sponsored "Aerospace Technology Institute" (ATI), the project focuses on five key domains - structures design, fuel systems, landing gear, systems integration and manufacture. To this end, the team is taking an integrated approach to design, testing and demonstration of technologies which offer the greatest performance and manufacturability benefits. Although based in the UK, the plateau brings together a large, multifunctional and multinational team encompassing, for example, pylon experts from Toulouse and high lift specialists from Bremen. The project will explore the best material choices, manufacturing and assembly techniques as well as considering 'disruptive' technologies in aerodynamics and wing architecture likely to confer in-service performance gains as well as being conducive to high-rate production.

With the aim of delivering a portfolio of mature technologies by around the end of the decade, the plateau team is currently selecting the first ones which could eventually be evaluated in full-scale wing demonstrators. These demonstrators would 'connect' those chosen technologies and would be tested over a three to four year period to ensure that the technologies, when used together, deliver the expected overall benefits. Underscoring Airbus' long-term commitment for advanced wing research is its recently announced intention to open a 'Wing Integration Centre' at Filton which would provide a state-of-the-art environment for Airbus, its suppliers and academic partners.

Fuselage Acoustic Lab demonstrator up-and-running in Hamburg
For the first time Airbus can investigate cabin noise and vibrations using an 8.5-metre-long fuselage demonstrator representing an A320 fuselage segment, while significantly shortening the development cycle for new solutions. The new test platform at the Centre for Applied Aviation Research (ZAL) in Hamburg was established to help facilitate future advances in cabin noise reduction, without having to resort to expensive flight testing. The acoustic chamber also offers engineers the opportunity to perform detailed comparisons between simulation models and real-world physics, thus allowing better noise transfer predictions. The demonstrator can be subjected to sound waves around its full circumference via a system of 128 individually controllable speakers - a setup which was devised to replicate engine noise from existing and future propulsion concepts. By accurately reproducing conditions which apply in flight, the acoustic lab will allow Airbus' interior noise teams to pinpoint where noise enters the cabin and how it is spread and transmitted. They then can explore how background noise can be reduced. The ZAL chamber can accommodate fuselage demonstrators of up to eight metres high and 15 metres long, including for Airbus' A350 XWB and A330 widebody aircraft. The initial A320 fuselage mock-up is being thoroughly investigated before work begins on representative cabin interior components. Tests with passengers also are planned in the acoustic lab's future. The acoustic lab is part of a newly-created infrastructure at the ZAL in Hamburg, which opened earlier this year and interfaces between the aviation sector, academic and research institutions, and the City of Hamburg - with Airbus being one of the three largest shareholders.

Photo1: Acoustic Lab; Photo2: Acoustic Lab

Airbus develops CFRP fuselage test-shell for European research project
Airbus teams from its Engineering and Manufacturing functions have led the development of a large CFRP test-shell as the centrepiece of a European-funded research project. Called "MAAXIMUS" meaning: "more affordable aircraft through extended, integrated and mature numerical sizing", the collaboration features the latest technologies and aims to significantly reduce the time needed to develop highly optimised composite aircraft structures. In practice this means replacing physical tests of composite components with simulations wherever possible and which will reduce development and validation costs. The backbone of the project is a 24m2 test shell panel, which teams at the Airbus site in Stade started building in 2015 using computer simulations. The component, which matches the A350 XWB's geometry, has been equipped with frames and other stiffeners based on new technologies. It features a door frame which Airbus will use to integrate and test a complete door. Tests will include the manufacture of clips and cleats as short fibre reinforced injection-moulded parts - a technology designed to save weight and costs. The test shell also offers Airbus' Additive Layer Manufacturing experts the opportunity to validate printed titanium door fittings prior to implementing this technology in series programmes. In the past, complex structures such as door frames used to be tested using a much larger fuselage section. The project brings together 56 partners from industry and academia. Besides Airbus in Germany, France and the UK, institutions involved include: the Hamburg Centre of Applied Aeronautical Research (ZAL); the Stade Composite Technology Centre; and the CFK Nord research centre.

Photo: MAAXIMUS fuselage demonstrator in Stade

Airbus extends partnership with Japan for structural health monitoring
Airbus has extended its partnership with a Japanese industrial consortium for research and development into structural health monitoring (SHM) for aircraft composites by two more years until 2018. The SHM systems developed in the partnership, called "JASTAC" (Japan Airbus SHM Technology for Aircraft Composite), would be able to detect faults or abnormal transformations caused in the aircraft structure even during flight, thereby offering advantages such as increased aircraft availability, reduced maintenance costs and airframe weight. The JASTAC initiative involves Airbus, RIMCOF (Research Centre of Advanced Metals and Composites of Metals), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The objective of JASTAC is to develop the optical fibre based SHM technologies of MHI, KHI and FHI to revolutionise design, operability and manufacturing quality control of CFRP aircraft structures.
3. OPERATIONS & SERVICES
Airbus Engineering develops new CFRP 'bonded' repair technique
After a successful two year development programme, Airbus' Engineering department has refined a new carbon fibre 'bonded' repair technique which is applicable initially to A350 XWB composite fuselage panels (but could be expanded to other composite structures later). This repair process is an alternative to the traditional 'bolted' repair, with added value for customers, resulting from better aesthetics and a post-repair flush surface for a smooth aerodynamic profile. Logistically, the new process benefits from not requiring heavy equipment such as an autoclave to bond a repair patch onto the structure. Going forward, Airbus' Customer Services Engineering and Maintenance department will soon perform a final full-scale validation of the end-to-end process on the A350 MSN03 flight-test aircraft, undertaken by an Airbus working party repair team. This will take place in a fully representative 'in-service' operational environment, using all the relevant tools and means. These include: material kitting; a portable 'clean room' to prepare pre-preg plies; a shelter to isolate the repair zone on aircraft; and a repair jet machine to 'automatize' damage removal. Typically, the most common types of damage to composite aircraft structures (which have caused aircraft to be taken out of operation) include lightning strike, hail and accidental 'foreign-object' impact - which this new bonded repair process will be extremely effective in addressing.

Airbus launches head-up-display retrofit programme in China
Airbus has launched a head-up display (HUD) retrofit programme for Chinese operators, applicable to all Airbus' aircraft families. The decision to launch the HUD retrofit programme follows the Civil Aviation Administration of China's (CAAC's) recent requirement for all Chinese airlines to be equipped with HUD by the year 2025. Moreover, the staged implementation requires that at least half of the Chinese fleet should already be fitted with HUDs by 2020. To address this, the Airbus managed retrofit programme will enable operators to phase-in their HUD installations concurrently with other upgrades or scheduled maintenance checks.

Furthermore, aircraft which are equipped with the HUDs are set to benefit from new minimum landing requirements, which in turn will allow increased traffic volumes to and from Chinese airports - as landings and take-offs become more efficient. Notably, aircraft which are not equipped with a HUD may have to wait for landing slots. A HUD is a transparent display screen, located at eye level in the cockpit which provides pilots with key information on an aircraft's trajectory, speed and altitude as well as an artificial horizon and other primary flight data as they prepare to make an approach for landing. Using the HUD increases pilots' situational awareness, particularly during the approach and landing phases in bad weather and fog.

Photo: Airbus' Dual Head-Up-Displays

Latin America's first Airbus training centre inaugurated in Mexico
Airbus has opened its first training centre in Latin America in Mexico City on the campus of the Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares International Training Facility (CIIASA), near Mexico City International Airport. The new facility becomes the seventh of its type in the world, joining similar centres in Toulouse, Hamburg, Miami, Beijing, Bangalore and Singapore. The 2,500-square-metre facility, which offers training to Airbus operators in Mexico and throughout Latin America, houses a full-suite of A320 pilot training equipment -- including two A320 Family Full Flight Simulators and an 'Airbus Pilot Trainer'. The centre, which has a capacity for more than 1,000 trainees annually, also offers pilot-type rating, recurrent and maintenance training for the A320 Family. Pilot demand in the region is expected to grow at an annual rate of 4.7 percent between today and 2035, creating an industry-wide opportunity to train more than 44,000 new pilots over the next two decades.

Photo: Mexico Training Centre

Airbus and CAAC sign agreement to demonstrate i4D technology
Airbus and CAAC ATMB (Civil Aviation Administration of China - Air Traffic Management Bureau) have signed an agreement for the demonstration of the i4D ("initial 4D") trajectory technology in China. This partnership with Chinese authorities paves the way for the first Asian demonstration of the i4D technology in 2017 with an interconnection between an Airbus integration simulator and a Chinese Air Traffic Control simulator. Subsequently, it is planned that in 2018, a Chinese-built China Southern Airlines A320neo equipped with i4D capable systems will fly i4D operations in Chinese airspace with an i4D-equipped Air Traffic Control (ATC) centre.

JetBlue becomes launch customer of Airbus' Scheduled Maintenance Optimiser solution
JetBlue has become the launch customer for the first module of Airbus' "Scheduled Maintenance Optimiser", following a successful prototyping and demonstration of value. This application, focusing on long-term planning, is part of the 'Airbus Smarter Fleet' solutions. The deployment will help decrease maintenance costs through the optimisation of scheduled maintenance events at fleet, aircraft and single task level. Thanks to the tailored algorithms, JetBlue planners will be able to instantly compute the best schedules for a fleet of 200+ aircraft over a five-year horizon, while targeting strategic business objectives. Airbus is committed to Scheduled Maintenance Optimiser's benefits and will progressively expand it with additional modules for scheduled maintenance processes, leveraging increasing Airbus Smarter Fleet platform capabilities.

People
· Philippe MHUN is appointed Head of Customer Services. In this position, Philippe will report to Didier Evrard - Airbus' EVP of Programmes.

· Bart REIJNEN is appointed Head of Satair Group, reporting to Laurent Martinez - Head of Business Unit Services, Airbus Customer Services.

· Luc HENNEKENS is appointed CIO of Airbus & Airbus Group. Luc will report to Marc Fontaine - Group Digital Transformation Officer Airbus & Airbus Group - for Airbus Group matters, and to Tom Williams - Airbus COO - for Airbus matters.

· Frédéric DEZAUZIER is appointed Head of Airbus Corporate Jet Programme. Frédéric will report directly to Benoît Defforge - Head of Airbus Corporate Jets.

· Alexandre JAY, currently A330neo Chief Engineer, is appointed Chief Engineer A380 Programme. Alexandre will directly report to Alain Flourens - Head of A380 Programme.

· Andreas FOERSTER is appointed Head of A380 FAL Hamburg.

· Véronique ROCA, currently Chief Engineer for A330/A340, is appointed Chief Engineer & Technical Director for the Beluga XL programme.