Airbus successfully completed hot weather testing of A350-1000 test aircraft. The testing was carried out at Al Ain International airport from 4 to 7 July and involved the aircraft undergo extreme weather conditions. The objective of the tests is to check systems behaviour with a focus on the cabin, including cooling performance on ground. The Al Ain International Airport has been serving as Airbus’ base for hot weather testing for years now.

Airbus A350-1000 is the newest and largest member of the A350 family. It is to seat 366 passengers, which is higher than A350-900 by around 40 passengers. The length is up to 73.8 metres compared to 66.8 metres of A350-900. It competes against Boeing 777-300ER and Boeing 777X-9 by rival Boeing. Compared to 777X-9, Airbus estimates a 15% lower trip cost and 7% lower seat cost with more range.

The A350-1000 features a modified wing trailing-edge, new six-wheel main landing gears instead of four and more powerful Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines. The A350-1000 was originally supposed to enter service in 2015 but was delayed by two years. Now it is expected to enter service in fourth quarter of 2017, reportedly with Qatar Airways. The aircraft currently has 211 confirmed orders from 12 customers.

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The very first Airbus A321neo was delivered to Virgin America last month. It is the largest and longest range variant of the Airbus family of narrowbody aircrafts and will enter service later this month. Virgin America has 10 A321neos on order, of which five will be delivered this year. The family of narrowbody aircrafts has long list of buyers and is outselling the Boeing 737 family with quite a margin.

To up the game, Boeing is reportedly weighing the option of an all new plane in the middle of the market rather than making relatively cost effective changes to existing models. The 757 offered higher seating than the 737 and A320 family and Boeing sees a market gap to fill here right below the existing twin aisle jets. The new design is expected to be a lightweight twin aisle airplane which Boeing could start offering to airlines next year for service starting around 2024. In the meantime, Boeing is adding a larger variant to the 737 family with 190-230 seats scheduled to be launched next month.

Airbus, while dismissing the threat claiming that the current narrowbody options don’t leave any room to fill, is already in conversations with suppliers for enhanced versions of A321neo called A321neo plus. Along with this, Reuters reports that Airbus is holding back plans for a significantly enhanced version for if and when Boeing goes ahead with a 220-260 passenger plane. These developments in near future would also set course for the two companies for at least the next decade.

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A record 5,499 students from around the world registered to participate in the fifth edition of Airbus’ Fly Your Ideas, the global student challenge organised in partnership with UNESCO.

A group of 60 Airbus experts and innovators assessed the ideas submitted by 356 teams from 89 countries. The rigorous evaluation process took place at four different Airbus locations in France, Germany, Spain and the UK, with 50 student teams selected to reach Round Two of the competition, starting in January 2017.

The competition is led by teams registered in the Asia-Pacific region. The 50 teams comprise 202 students representing 38 different nationalities. With 52% of teams mixing male and female students, two thirds of all teams are diverse in some way, for example with members coming from different countries or studying different subjects. This reflects Airbus’ commitment to diversity which it sees as an essential driver for innovation and success.

Innovative ideas from the 50 chosen teams include robotic luggage trolleys, passenger seats which can be boarded outside the aircraft, new solutions for energy harvesting and virtual reality applications.

“Fly Your Ideas is unique and we are proud of the company-wide engagement of Airbus employees who support the competition, either as assessors, mentors or experts,” says Charles Champion, Airbus Executive Vice President Engineering. “We are offering students the rare opportunity to interact directly with senior specialists from across the business. In turn, these experts will benefit from their direct interaction with talents from across the globe, all sharing the same passion for one of the world’s most exciting industries.”

Each of the teams has 100 days to refine and develop their ideas. The top five teams to make it through to Round Three will spend a week at the “ProtoSpace” based at the Airbus HQ in Toulouse to prototype, test and visualise their ideas using state-of-the art equipment with personalised guidance from Airbus. The winning team will receive a €30,000 prize, the runner up team €15,000, at a live prize giving event in May 2017.

From January 2017, the 50 teams will start developing their ideas and share updates on their progress with photos, sketches and stories posted on http://www.airbus-fyi.com.

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Airbus has associated with a California based startup Dedrone for a system that provides security against drones. The technology by this startup is already used at certain sports stadiums and airbus is looking to bring the same to airports to secure against potential damages caused by the drones. The ever increasing popularity of drones has started to pose threats and a reckless drone operator can put hundreds of lives in danger in a crowded airspace.

Dedrone is working with Airbus DS Electronics and Border Security, a unit of the aerospace giant. The two companies are looking to combine Airbus’ long range radar and jamming functions with Dedrone’s sensor system to achieve secure airspace. Various regulations have come into being with the popularity of drones but they can’t ensure that people won’t cross the line. The system developed by Dedrone can detect and target a standard commercial drone from around seven miles and initiate countermeasures automatically.

The jamming system in this system uses frequency used by commercial drones for communications. This will leave other spectrums unaffected. Various venues are using the Dedrone systems and generally at these venues, sensors that look like CCTV cameras. The sensors scan for certain frequencies, analyse images and observe activity in the sky. On detecting a drone, the system alerts security team who can then act accordingly.

There are some other players in this space offering solutions to tackle rogue drones. SkySafe was another startup, that we learned about earlier, having a solution to the problem.

Source

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The airline industry is extremely competitive and every moment a plane is stationary on the ground, it is making an economic loss. Many times travellers reach the airport very late and end up delaying the flights. To avoid monetary loss in such situations, Airbus has reconsidered its boarding process.

To reduce its time on the ground, Airbus’ latest patent proposed a modular cabin in which passengers can be seated even before the plane arrives. According to the proposal, this removal cabin module will comprise a floor, an upper aircraft fuselage portion connected to the floor, and a first and a second end wall, wherein the first and second end walls, the floor and the upper aircraft fuselage portion form a cabin for transport of passengers, luggage, freight or combinations.

The image below shows how airplane fuselages turn into trucks, pulling up at the airports to get to the next container of travellers before taking off again.

For a simpler understanding, the travellers will have to board the plane while it’s at the gate. Once everyone is seated the pod is lowered onto the plane. When the travellers arrive at their destination, the cabin is removed, another is added and the plane takes off again. By this process, the time spent on the ground reduces significantly.

A few months ago, Zodiac Seats France – one of the leading manufacturers of aircraft passenger seats  – conceptualized an inconvenient seating arrangement called ‘Economy Class Cabin Hexagon’ for the travellers. Their idea was to take the middle seat and turn it around 180 degree to maximise space. This would make travellers face each other and forcefully stare into each other eyes.

Fortunately for the travellers, the two concepts mentioned above are just at the patenting stage and might not turn into real-life airplanes. Would you be ready to travel in such oddly designed airplanes?

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