Airbus loses altitude. "They're not particulary happy about that"

[Vegas Flyer]

Airbus loses altitude
Shares in Airbus parent EADS plummeted by as much as 29 percent today after the European defense company warned that production of its new, 555-seat A380 superjumbo jet would be delayed by up to seven months. For a strong, government-backed company to fall so sharply "in one sitting is an absolute catastrophe of the highest order," said Cantor Index strategist David Buik. (MarketWatch.com) Airbus blamed a "bottleneck" caused by wiring changes. Singapore Airlines, Emirates, and Qantas now will get less than half of the A380s they had planned to launch next year, said John Leahy, Airbus' chief operating officer. "They're not particularly happy about that," he said. (The New York Times, free registration required)

 

[Bavarian Chef]

Time for Neeleman to go to airbus and negotiate a sweetheart deal for some new long haul, international airbii. All that int'l traffic leaving jfk without a jb tail must make him hungry.

 

[Alcatraz]

Of course I just read an article in Business Week today about how Boeing's 787 may run into some delays, as well.

One problem is the very large percentage of outsourcing, and suppliers who used to be competitors are now supposed to work together. As an example, Smiths, Collins, and Honeywell are supposed to build the avionics and fly-by-wire systems, but their systems are having trouble communicating with each other. Some fuselage sections (composite) were not up to Boeing specs.

I'm still a Boeing fan, and like how a mostly American company is beating the pants off subsidized Airbus in orders, but taking on a project as new and revolutionary as the 787 is bound to have some hiccups.

I guess the Boeing/Airbus competition will continue to get interesting...

 

[densoo]

This Won't Help

Airbus 'disagrees' with ICAO 'unreality' on A380 wake vortexThursday June 15, 2006

Airbus said yesterday that it "disagrees" with ICAO's interim recommendation that there be 10 nm. of separation between the A380 and aircraft landing behind it.Speaking at the company's annual technical press briefing in Toulouse, Senior VP-Flight Division Claude Lelaie described the ICAO position as "not reality." He said Airbus's own extensive testing reveals that heavy aircraft need to be separated from the A380 by just 6 nm. on approach to avoid complications from its wake vortex, or 1 nm. more than currently is required for aircraft flying behind 747s on approach.

http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=5396