Leeham Co.’s Scott Hamilton checks in from Orlando, where ILFC chief Steven Udvar-Hazy spoke at an industry meeting and repeated some of the comments he made here in Everett last week.
In an e-mail noting that he’d updated his weekly blog, Scott says that “Hazy told the crowd … that Airbus had been caught off guard by Boeing’s 787 after … years of beating Boeing in sales and Boeing’s own missteps … Hazy said the current A350 design … is excellent but it still falls short of the 787.”
Flight International http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2006/03/29/Navigation/177/205740/Airbus+is+at+a+crossroads+on+A350+design,+says+ILFCs.html also is reporting on Hazy’s comments in Orlando.
Key Quote: “Udvar-Hazy sees the A350 as a response by Airbus after being ‘stunned’ and ‘caught a little bit behind the power curve’ when rival Boeing shifted gears from the Sonic Cruiser plan to developing a new family of aircraft with the 787.”
Hazy’s remarks came after Airbus supersalesman John Leahy gave a presentation http://www.leeham.net/filelib/ScottsColumn032806.pdf in which he defended the A350 — partly in response to the comments Hazy made at Friday’s Aeromexico delivery ceremony here .
Key Quote: “Leahy … argued that the A330 is more efficient than the 787 … but it (the A330)doesn’t have the range of the 787, so Airbus is going with the A350. … The A350 is, Leahy says, closer to the A380 technology and a brand new type certificate — not a derivative to the A330/A340. The A350 uses aluminum lithium over composite for the fuselage because, Leahy says, it will be easier to repair for “ramp rash.” … Leahy said that the A350 interior is all-new and has nothing in common with the A330/A340.”
In case you missed it (and shame on you if you did), my column http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/03/29/100bus_corliss001.cfm in today’s Herald reprised my blog entry from Friday, after the conversation Hazy had with me and a couple other reporters.
Key Quote: “A pivotal moment for Boeing was when it proposed the Sonic Cruiser, Hazy said. The plane never got off the computer screen, but it marked the point at which Boeing ‘looked in the mirror and said, What is our product strategy?’ … To counter, Airbus needs to take a similarly big leap, Hazy said, and ‘address whether they keep refining this A330 line and calling it an A350.’”
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