After years of reworking the design and refining its production process to learn from the troubles encountered by both the A380 and 787, Airbus is about to discover whether its ambitious A350 promises can be turned into reality.
While the 787 may lay claim tothe unwanted tag of longest development from go-ahead to first flight and delivery, the A350 XWB can claim the longest design phase having been initially offered to customers in December 2004 with the final design of the lead -900 variant only being frozen in 2011, after two major redesign efforts. However, both the 787 and A350 XWB are paradigm shifts in materials, systems and production processes that will clearly form the basis of medium- to long-haul ...
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