Posted on 01/21/2007 3:54:57 PM PST by blam
Airbus solves A380 wiring glitch
Singapore Airlines has agreed to buy 19 A380s
Airbus has fixed electrical problems related to its A380 superjumbo, which have led to major delivery delays for the planemaker. The group said the news meant it had "passed a major milestone" for the plane's production.
Deliveries to Singapore Airlines, its launch customer, were now on track to arrive in October, it said.
Problems with the A380 have left Airbus two years behind with deliveries, hitting shares at parent company EADS.
"We have finished the electrical installation," said Airbus spokesman Tore Prang. "We have handed the aircraft to the cabin equipment team to install the first A380."
Costly delays
Last week, Airbus chief executive Louis Gallois said the firm was "determined to complete this first delivery in October 2007, as we announced, and to prepare ourselves for the next deliveries in 2008".
Singapore Airlines has agreed to buy 19 A380s from the firm. Other customers include Thai Airways, Virgin and Australian flag-carrier Qantas.
However, delays to the A380 have already cost the firm more than $6bn (£3.3bn) and Airbus has warned there could be additional charges to come.
Last week, the European group also revealed it had fallen behind US rival Boeing in securing orders for the first time since 2000.
Airbus won 824 new orders last year, down from 1,111 in 2005, and below Boeing's 1,050 haul.
UK job worries
Meanwhile, a report in the Financial Times warned that Airbus's manufacturing base in the UK - which employs 13,000 people - could be under threat.
The FT quoted Airbus executive vice president Tom Williams as saying there was "a risk" the company may award a £100m ($197m) contract to make wings for the A350 to rival plants in Germany or Spain.
The fuel-efficient, medium-sized long haul jet is seen as Airbus's direct challenger to Boeing's 787 "Dreamliner".
The Dreamliner is a long-range, midsized, wide-body, twin-engine passenger airliner capable of carrying 200-350 passengers.
"Glitch" is a woefully inadqueate term for all of the wiring issues that this plane encountered.
A Glitch?!! Part of the wiring design was done in Germany, and the other in France...they use DIFFERENT SOFTWARE...the designs didn't match up. What a friggin screw up.
Hey air
us i have a dirty word for ya,
Boeing.
And they are going to eat your lunch.
An American Company.
Ever own a french car???
Wireless avionics .... We don't need no stinkin wires! :-)
"Ever own a french car???"
Wasn't there a recent story about french cars bursting into flames due to faulty wiring?
Never again flying on anything but boeing if I can help it.
Faulty wiring or Islamic supremacist rioters - can't remember which ...
bump
How about French copper wire, plugged into a German aluminum socket? LOL!
Now if they can only figure out how to keep the tailfins from breaking off the 320s while in flight.................
If it ain't Boeing you ain't going? :)
Or how about minimizing wake turbulence that requires planes to stay twice as far apart as a 747. Or how about the fact that their sales are made in US Dollars but their sales are make in Euros. A great reverse currency hedge that is guaranteed to lose money no matter what the currency.
Or shame...
Re-arranging the deck chairs on Titanic.Tic,tic,tic or glug,glug,glug
That looks like telephone wires to me.
A380 ping
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