Airbus And Boeing Heading In Separate Directions
Not so futuristic as Airbus are already developing the "wings of tomorrow" planes. Hydrogen powered cells capable of transporting 200 passengers with zero carbon emissions by 2035.
At last weeks Farnborough airshow Airbus and Boeing did their presentations outlining where they believe the airline business will be in the next decade. The Farnborough airshow is the most important date for anything aircraft related and the who is who of the airline industry is in attendance.
The two presentations by Airbus and Boeing were very different yet they both have the same intended goals which is more fuel efficient planes. What I found quite strange was the big difference between the two companies and this is most likely due to where they are as a business. One is looking to the future and the other is solving problems from the past dating back to 2011. This is fascinating to see where these two companies will be come 2035 as one is
Boeing do not expect any new model airframes until 2040 whilst airbus expect new models launching in 2031. Boeing is basically on hold for the next 14/15 years recovering from their recent disasters so if you were a aeronautical design engineer there will be no new work for a large portion of your career.
Airbus are going to spend the next phase over the next 5 years developing new technology around their wings. The idea is to increase the size of the wings which will include a folding wing structure that will reduce fuel consumption by an expected 30%. This is technology development creating something new and what we would expect aero plane manufacturers to be consistently doing. A bit like a developer as the work just continues and is never finished. The wings are set to be ready for commercial use from 2035 so this is a huge project. The zero e pictured above is under development and is already 6 years in.
Boeing on the other hand have been advised by their clients to stop launching new products and to make what they already have better. The problem is lately every time Boeing launches or proposes a new model there are delays due to regulations and approvals and the aircraft cannot be certified. This will leave them so far behind Airbus it is scary.
The Boeing 777 10 years delay and 737 Max 10 with 4 years of delays has their customers questioning what is going on. Boeing clients telling them to improve what they have is another way of saying don't launch any newmodels as they have no confidence that these new projects will be any different.
Boeing have come out and said they are looking at an engine that will have an internal fan that will reduce fuel consumption by 20%. The important take from this is this is not Boeing doing the development and this is General Electric who also happen to supply Airbus with the same engines. 60% of Airbus Neo planes have this same engine being discussed by Boeing so this highlights Boeing have nothing new on the horizon. There is no ground breaking innovations happening with Boeing as their technical crew is still focused on fixing the 10 and 4 year old problems. This is quite embarrassing yet media tried to spin the story Boeing is back and I have no idea how they got that message from what I have been reading. This mind you is all political as these companies represent big business of Europe and the US.
The two presentations could not be so far apart for companies that are leading aeronautical industries. The 737 Max 10 is an upgraded version of the 737 launched in 2011 and 10 years later came to a standstill due to things Boeing developed that never passed the safety tests. The engine anti ice system needed redesigning as the engine over heated. Previous crashes with this model meant stricter regulation and safety checks which the plane failed on multiple counts.
If this story published today is correct which states the deicing over heating problem should be certified as safe by the end of this month then Southwest Airlines could start receiving their order in 2027. Putting things into context this order was placed in 2013 and the order will be 2013 prices otherwise why would any airline accept 14 year old technology. Obviously the latest engines and software, but the model is the Max 7 which is the same as the 8,9 and 10 models except the difference is the number of seats and range. This is still a new old plane as designers cannot fiddle with this anymore due to certification risks.
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Boeing has more and more problems and the drop in quality affects their sales as they had many incidents. Airbus is more resilient and I think they do better airplanes. But Boeing has the support of US government, they also have military airplanes so they are in a different game.
Yes without the US military contracts Boeing would not still be in business as it is that clear.
Boeing left Seattle and established their Chicago headquarters, then they moved assembly to cheaper production states from the state of Washington. Then they outsourced a lot of manufacturing abroad... all that resulted in supply chain complexities and quality issues. They were trying to please investors and as a result really hit their timelines and quality. Nothing is free...
Having said that I would also like to point out that Airbus doing radically new designs is not necessarily a great thing, there is a lot of risk associated with drastically new tech. And risk is not what you want in airline industry...
I think Boeing have been so much on the back foot as a business they are so far behind the curveball these days. New tech is what drives the industry forward and Boeing run the risk of being left behind big time. The new wings technology has been in development for 6 years so if they can develop this then we all benefit. I am just a bit shocked how far Boeing has dropped with regard to their standards and customers to say no new models is rather telling of how bad Boeing has become. The entire business looks as though it has been poorly run and when they turned to dei hiring they shot themselves in the foot. There is no confidence or lets say the confidence is low when flying in a Boeing plane. I know people who refuse to fly in the 737 max and double check before they book their fights.
I don't think it is in any way related to Diversity and Inclusion hiring as much as it is related to hiring lower skill work force in South Carolina so that they have to pay less than Washington State skilled workforce demands.
That is actually quite shocking what they did and it is no wonder the standards dropped.
@cryptoandcoffee, esto es lo que vale la pena rescatar en un feed lleno de ruido.
The flying V airbus is developing has a seating arrangement where passengers directly face each other. I wonder if it might result in additional personal conflicts over long flights. The hydrogen infrastructure for mass produced vehicles like the flying v also does not yet exist. A catalyst to more efficiently split h20 atoms into hydrogen and oxygen, by conducting electricity through water(electrolysis), has been announced a few times over the past 20 years. But no proof of concept prototypes have materialized.
I hope airbus succeeds with their wave of the future proposal but it looks as if they could have their work cut out for them.
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We shall wait in anticipation on the hydrogen cells lol. The wings they are developing should be interesting as well.