Over the past couple of years, Chicago-based Boeing Company has been getting, well, spanked by Euro-conglomerate Airbus. While the Toulouse, France-based company reveled in the imminent success of its two-deck A380 superjumbo and eclipsed Boeing in annual sales for the first time in history, though, Boeing unveiled its Dreamliner and quietly took more and more orders for the super-efficient 787.

Then Airbus encountered what is proving to be a terrible year: Boeing outsold the aircraft manufacturer by a sizable sum in 2006, and Airbus continues to announce delays in various aircraft.

In an interview with French daily Le Monde earlier this month, Airbus chief executive Christian Streiff said, “It will take us about 10 years to catch up with Boeing in terms of development and efficiency.”

In addition to delays and other hardships Airbus is incurring, part of the reason for having to play catch-up can be attributed to Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

The 787 Dreamliner is a long-range, midsized, wide-body, twin-engine passenger airliner currently under development by Boeing and scheduled to enter service in 2008. Boeing launched its 7E7 Dreamliner passenger aircraft in 2003, and in January 2005 the aircraft was given its 787 designation. Aircraft assembly began in June 2006.

Revolutionary flight — that is the lofty goal the members of the Dreamliner design team set for themselves at the beginning of the 787-development process, according to the company’s Point-to-Point newsletter earlier this year. The team studied commercial flight from every viewpoint to identify how an airplane could strengthen the aviation business.

According to Boeing:

Interchangeability is a big economic advantage for commercial jetliner owners and operators. The Dreamliner is designed to carry passengers for at least 30 years. During that period, interior styles will likely change several times. Seats, lavatories, galleys — and especially in-flight entertainment systems — will be upgraded or replaced several times as well. When an airplane is sold or leased, the new operator will want to redo the cabin in the colors and patterns of the airline's brand identity.

So the Dreamliner design team worked with cabin component suppliers to develop standard mounts and interfaces that will enable quicker and more economical modifications. This way, airplane owners can expect higher lease and resale values throughout the 787 Dreamliner's lifecycle, and will find a larger pool of potential leasers and purchasers when the time comes to transfer the airplane to another owner or operator.

Moreover, it will be more fuel efficient than comparable earlier airliners, and it will be the first major airliner to use composite material for most of its construction (in addition to advanced aluminum alloys), making it lighter for its capabilities.

The aircraft’s insulation is designed to resist the buildup of moisture, allowing Dreamliner engineers to design an air conditioning system that retains a comfortable level of humidity throughout the flight. Because composites do not suffer fatigue from repeated stress (such as when repeated pressurizations fatigue the structure of an aluminum airplane), the Dreamliner can be pressurized to the equivalent of 6,000 feet of altitude — “more reminiscent of an elegant resort than a lofty mountain spire.”

The Boeing 787 also adds air purification to the airplane’s environmental control system, which, according to the manufacturer, "already filters out microscopic particles and even viruses."

Boeing also has experimented with several engine noise-reducing technologies for the 787. Among these are a redesigned air inlet containing sound-absorbing materials and redesigned exhaust duct covers whose rims are tipped in a toothed pattern to allow for quieter mixing of exhaust and outside air. Boeing expects these developments to make the 787 significantly quieter both inside and outside the passenger cabin.

The primary goal of all of this design-related function is to promote passenger comfort.

Interestingly, when Boeing set up a Web site introducing people around the world to the 7E7-turned-787 in 2003, it also set up a “World Design Team” — a virtual community whose members had opportunities to provide input to the development of the then-unnamed airplane, including surveys concerning design elements and sneak peeks at the design of the exterior and interior evolves.

Considering these and a number of other passenger-focused design features and functions, the aircraft has been touted as “the most advanced and efficient commercial airplane in its class, one that will set new standards for environmental leadership and passenger comfort.”

The A350 XWB (extra wide body) is Airbus’ response to Boeing’s Dreamliner, as it competes with the high end of the 787 and the low end of the 777 markets.

The design for the new Airbus type started as an improved version of the A330, which became rather difficult to sell since Boeing presented the 787. In spring 2006, urged by criticism from airlines, Airbus began to consider a wider fuselage, a larger wing, more powerful engines, a higher cruise speed and many other changes to satisfy the airlines. So this year, Airbus presented an entirely new design — the A350 XWB.

Intended as part of a three-member family, the new A350 looks radically different from any previous twin-aisle Airbus.

Central to the new design is an all-new, wider fuselage with a diameter 31 centimeters (12 inches) wider than the A330 and eight centimeters (at armrest) to 13 centimeters (at eye level) wider than the 787, which Airbus said enables the plane to accommodate slightly wider (48 centimeters) economy seats than its rival. The new design maximizes usable volume by having a constant cross-section from door one to door four.

The redesigned fuselage is capped by a completely new nose with revised, four-piece cockpit windows. Moreover, passenger windows are five centimeters wider than those on today’s 330, making them the “widest on any airliner,” according to Airbus chief salesperson John Leahy.

The Airbus A350 XWB is intended to be substantially more fuel efficient than the A330 and less noisy.

About 60 percent of the A350 airframe will be built of weight-saving advanced materials like carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) and aluminum lithium alloys, according to Widebody Aircraft Parade. The new aircraft will be the first Airbus product with an all-composite wing. The rear fuselage and the tail cone will be constructed from composites, as well.

Further, the cockpit crew rest area will be placed beneath the cockpit — not only to save space on the main deck, but also as a security precaution to keep the cockpit completely separated from the rest of the aircraft.

The new A350’s engine will be “more advanced than those on the 787 and planned for the earlier A350,” with thrust ranges between 75,000 and 95,000 pounds, according to Leahy.

Airbus has anointed its A350 XWB “the most advanced aircraft family in its segment.”

In July, Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng said in a statement, “It is heartening that Airbus has listened to customer airlines and has come up with a totally new design for the A350.”

Unfortunately for Airbus, all of the features and functions of the airlines-demanded redesign means the A350 XWB needs significantly extra development work, and thus the in-service date for the aircraft will slip from 2010 to 2012, more than three years behind the scheduled introduction into service of the 787. Even worse, last week a senior aviation analyst told Forbes that the Airbus A350 XWB could be delayed until 2014. It seems the problem is that, while Boeing intends to make 50 percent of its 787 Dreamliner out of hardened plastics — and therefore lighter and more fuel efficient — Airbus has been planning to build much of the A350 with aluminum alloys.

"If they are going to compete with the B787, they have no choice but to go the composite route [using hardened plastics], which can only add 18 months or so to the schedule," said Doug McVitie, a former Airbus employee and managing director of Arran Aerospace. "I'd then add another six for 'contingencies', so that could be 2013 or 2014."

A spokesman from Airbus was quoted as saying that reports of a two-year delay to the A350 were "just speculation," adding that a decision on an industrial launch of the program would be announced this year, possibly as early as the end of this month.

Originally expected to be launched in 2012, a further delay to the A350 — which has not yet been built as a prototype — could put it a full six years behind Boeing's launch of its 787 Dreamliner, the model with which the A350 was expected to compete.

Clearly, Airbus is having a tougher time of introducing its aircraft. But the designs for both manufacturers' competing planes are impressive. Which one is more so?

Boeing Dreamliner photo gallery

Airbus A350 XWB video presentation

A completely one-sided and snarky video "comparing" the two companies' aircraft (not for Airbus fans)

Resources

Zut Alors!
Popular Science blog, Oct. 4, 2006

Boeing Prospects Improve On Airbus Hardship
by Mary Crane
Forbes, Oct. 5, 2006

Technology Redefines Joy of Flight
Boeing Point-to-Point, Vol. 1, Issue 4
June 2006

The Boeing 7E7 “Dreamliner,” a plane designed for manufacture and the customer
MAREK Talking Proud

Widebody Aircraft Parade: Airbus A350 XWB

Singapore Airlines Orders 20 AIRBUS A350 XWB-900s and 9 AIRBUS A380s
Singapore Airlines Limited (via The Business Times Online), July 21, 2006

Analyst: Airbus May Delay A350 By Two Years
by Parmy Olson
Forbes, Oct. 17, 2006