Airbus A380 family

[MilwaukeeRoad]

Armchair experts make themselves vulnerable to this.

 

[flateric]

Armchair experts make themselves vulnerable to this.

Malipa kinda an "TU Delft AE student", so this term is not quit applicable in this case.

 

[Jemiba]

What can be read about the A380 basically is, that the problems Airbus is facing, aren't technical,
but just economical. There's simply not enough demand for an aircraft of that size, even less of
an enlarged version. So malipa is quite right stating, that making it even longer won't help !

 

[bobbymike]

Armchair experts make themselves vulnerable to this.

Malipa kinda an "TU Delft AE student", so this term is not quit applicable in this case.

If an 'Armchair Expert' is someone with an opinion who may have not worked on the 'project' being commented on then Mr. Road doesn't seem to understand that this forum is filled with such people AND THAT'S AWESOME because the emphasis is on the EXPERT part of the title. SPF is loaded with incredible people with tremendous technical backgrounds able to take a simple news story with accompanying pictures and provide incredible depth and nuance so that a true aerospace neophyte like myself can learn so much beyond the story. I am tremendously grateful for the experts here who have provided me more knowledge and insight into aerospace and military programs than the previous 20 years of my life prior to joining this forum.

 

[Grey Havoc]

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001806478

8:43 pm, December 21, 2014


Jiji Press

Airbus SAS is preparing to file a lawsuit in Britain against Skymark Airlines over the Japanese airline’s purchase of Airbus A380 superjumbo jets, informed sources said.

In 2011, Skymark signed a contract to buy six A380s. But it later asked for changes to the contract, including a delay in the purchase, due to its poor business performance.

Concluding that Skymark had called off the purchase, Airbus in July notified the Japanese firm of its decision to terminate the contract and demanded a penalty of ¥70 billion. Skymark has asked for a smaller penalty.

A senior Skymark official said Saturday that the move by Airbus suggests the European aircraft maker wants to resolve the issue early and that no decision to file a suit has been made.

 

[Grey Havoc]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/11353508/Is-Airbuss-A380-a-superjumbo-with-a-future-or-an-aerospace-white-elephant.html

 

[Grey Havoc]

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34762905

 

[hesham]

The ASX-700;

http://archive.aviationweek.com/image/spread/19911028/19/2

 

[carsinamerica]

The ASX-700;
http://archive.aviationweek.com/image/spread/19911028/19/2

Great find, hesham! I've been looking for info on the various Aerospatiale ASX models for a long time. Same with the A2000.

 

[Grey Havoc]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35710969

 

[fredymac]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35710969

Unfortunately, all coach class passengers were found dead in their seats from deep vein thrombosis. Who in the world could sit that long in an airline seat. Maybe these flights have bigger seats than I'm used to. I'm too cheap to fly first class and I have never been able to finagle a free upgrade.

 

[hesham]

From Avion Revue 8/1991;

here is a Model for A-2000.

 

[Grey Havoc]

Airbus Profit Falls 50% as Deliveries Lag Behind (Wall Street Journal, registration may be required)

Airbus booked only 10 net orders in the first three months of the year, compared with a target of more than 650 deals for the year. It lost an order for two A380s from France’s Air Austral, though it managed to unload to Emirates Airline two superjumbos previously built for Japan’s Skymark Airlines Inc. that weren’t delivered when the deal was canceled.

With a dearth of new orders for its flagship A380 superjumbo passenger plane, which cost $432.6 million each at list price, Airbus said it would deliver around 27 of the planes this year, on par with 2015, and cut output to 20 to 25 in 2017, Mr. Wilhelm said. The program would remain at break-even next year, he said, after years of delivering unprofitable planes that ended only last year.

Airbus is trying to secure more deals for 2018 deliveries, though hasn’t given delivery targets yet. Mr. Wilhelm said Airbus wouldn’t speculatively build A380 planes unless it had orders for them.

In January, the European plane maker signed an agreement with Iran Air to take 12 of the superjumbos, though the deal isn’t yet completed. The company is working to secure financing for the deal, Mr. Wilhelm said.

 

[Archibald]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/11353508/Is-Airbuss-A380-a-superjumbo-with-a-future-or-an-aerospace-white-elephant.html

The usual Telegraph crap, as we say in French"ce journal est un a torche-cul" (that taboid is an asswipe)

 

[Triton]

Larger artist's impression of A2000.

Source:
https://twitter.com/RAeSTimR

 

[carsinamerica]

Larger artist's impression of A2000.

Source:
https://twitter.com/RAeSTimR

That's a really interesting post, Triton. It's a much higher-quality image than the one earlier in the thread, but it looks almost identical (same angle, same clouds). EXCEPT, the cockpit is on the upper deck in the earlier depiction, but mid-level in this one. I wonder which came first.

 

[Grey Havoc]

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37362488

 

[sienar]

Production of one per month in 2018

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/11/airbus-cuts-a380-production-as-third-quarter-forecasts-tumble.html?__source=yahoonews&par=yahoonews

 

[fightingirish]

Airbus A380plus

A380plus: Even more efficient, still unique
Airbus is presenting a developmental study for an enhanced version of the A380, called the “A380plus." The study includes aerodynamic improvements that would reduce fuel consumption, as well as an enhanced cabin layout and optimised maintenance planning.

https://youtu.be/Fmf8YBigM1Y

https://youtu.be/Fmf8YBigM1Y

 

[Triton]

Airbus A380plus ‘cabin enablers’

Published on Jun 15, 2017

This video is a live demonstration, by Roland Naudy – A380 Cabin Marketing Director, of ‘cabin enablers’ which along with aerodynamic and operational improvements form the A380plus. These cabin enablers allow 80 additional seats to be accommodated without compromising comfort.

https://youtu.be/on5AsWxR5_s

 

[Triton]

"Airbus Sees Potential For 60-100 Chinese A380 Orders"
Sep 19, 2017 Jens Flottau | Aviation Daily

Source:
http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/airbus-sees-potential-60-100-chinese-a380-orders

BEIJING—Airbus believes it can sell up to 100 Airbus A380s to Chinese airlines over the next five years.

“I am working on creating a domino effect,” Eric Chen, Airbus Commercial Aircraft China president and CEO said at a company event in Beijing. So far, only China Southern Airlines operates a small fleet of five A380s. Airbus is struggling to sell the aircraft elsewhere.

Chen bases his optimism on the growth of Chinese outbound traffic, from 20 million passengers in 2006 to 120 million in 2016, a trend that he sees continuing. He also argues that Chinese airlines only capture around one-third of the international traffic to and from China—and therefore sees a lot of room to grow. But, “There is a lack of confidence in being able to operate the A380. We need to work with the airlines,” he said. In his view, Chinese carriers are “absolutely capable” operationally and from an engineering perspective to fly the aircraft.

According to Chen, some Chinese airlines have shown interest in the proposed A380plus, an enhanced version of the current aircraft that stops short of re-engining.

While none of the Big Three Chinese carriers has firm orders in place for the A320neo—because of the dependence on the five-year cycle of the central government’s economic-planning policy—Chen is “very confident that 20% of the Airbus production will be delivered to China” in the next 20 years. Chen also predicted that the A350 will be “even more popular among Chinese airlines than the A330,.

There are 202 A330s currently in service in China.

 

[Flyaway]

Air France A380 in emergency diversion after engine parts detach

An Air France Airbus A380 was forced to divert to Goose Bay, Canada, earlier today while en route to Los Angeles after suffering a serious engine-failure event.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/air-france-a380-in-emergency-diversion-after-engine-441681/

 

[circle-5]

Engine No.4 is not supposed to look like this ...

 

[FighterJock]

Engine No.4 is not supposed to look like this ...

Anyone know why the engine cowl and fan disk departed from the rest of the engine? And has there been another case involving such parts falling off in the past?

 

[DWG]

Little early for anyone to know why it happened. It's fairly common to lose minor bits of the external cowl, but following a history of uncontained engine failures, engines have to pass blade-off testing during certification, demonstrating that the casing can contain a severed fan blade. Clearly that didn't happen in this case, and there's the possibility that the entire disk came adrift, which is likely more KE than the casing can contain. Very lucky it didn't hit the rest of the aircraft structure on the way.

 

[robunos]

. . . engines have to pass blade-off testing during certification, demonstrating that the casing can contain a severed fan blade.

A380/Trent 900 Blade-Off Test video . . . (test starts at 3.30)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j973645y5AA


cheers,
Robin.

 

[circle-5]

A better view from the ground. I'd say this flight was very lucky ...

 

[FighterJock]

A better view from the ground. I'd say this flight was very lucky ...

They were more than lucky, they were extremely lucky.

 

[merriman]

So much for total fan containment. However, to be fair, I suppose most of the energy of the derangement was imparted to the (gone!) armored rub-ring. Wow!

David

 

[TomS]

So much for total fan containment. However, to be fair, I suppose most of the energy of the derangement was imparted to the (gone!) armored rub-ring. Wow!

David

It's meant to contain a failed fan blade and the cascading damage from that. I'm not sure anyone designs for containing the entire fan disc when the shaft separates, which may be the case here.

 

[TomcatViP]

The neat separation suggest a pulsed event.
No blade had enough time to twist their path if there was any cascading event. Hence a complete separation at once is a credible event with gyro forces and rotor lift pulling the encasing structure on their way out.
It's a miracle the wing or fuselage were not hit!

I wonder if there was any recent maintenance work.

 

[Michel Van]

I have to make some clarification

The youtube Video show a test with Roll Royce Trent 900 engine

The Air-france AF066 failed engine is a Engine Alliance GP7200

Engine Alliance is US join-venture of jet engine manufactures of General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.
The GP7200 is modified version of GP7000, original developed for Boeing 747-500 and -600 series.
but never went to service for that plane, so it was uprated for used on A380 instead...

 

[VTOLicious]

Take a Look Under the Hood of the GP7200:

http://www.enginealliance.com/gp7200/?utm_source=ntent&utm_campaign=flightglobal&utm_medium=ppcads

 

[kitnut617]

A quick question, can the A380's with GP7200 be easily converted to run with RR Trents?

 

[DWG]

First you need to source all the Trents you need. And that's not going to happen in the short term.

WRT possible or not, it should in theory be a case of replacing the pylon and engine, and loading the appropriate software into the EMU (assuming that's a common unit). Whether that needs a Supplementary Type Certificate, and the certification process that goes with it, is an interesting question.

 

[Hobbes]

The bottlenecks for such a replacement would be money ($10-25M per engine) and logistics (production volume).

 

[FighterJock]

A Danish helicopter has discovered parts of the engine that broke up in mid air from the Air France A-380 in a remote part of Greenland. From the BBC News Website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41515516

 

[kitnut617]

The bottlenecks for such a replacement would be money ($10-25M per engine) and logistics (production volume).

Yes but the failure will mean a lot of A380's will be grounded until the cause is determined -- right ?

 

[Triton]

"Opinion: Endgame For The A380?"
Nov 15, 2017 Richard Aboulafia | Aviation Week & Space Technology

Source:
http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/opinion-endgame-a380

 

[Triton]

"We may have just witnessed the end of the Airbus A380 superjumbo"
by Benjamin Zhang

Nov. 14, 2017, 1:22 PM

Source:
http://www.businessinsider.com/emirates-airbus-a380-order-dubai-air-show-boeing-2017-10