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Dreamliner B.787, A350 and CRAIG
Sonic Cruiser After the ideas of supersonic of even hypersonic civil transports had been abandoned, Boeing surprised with the Sonic Cruiser proposal for speeds around Mach 0.98. For its premium-class passengers, traveling time from London to New York should be cut by 1 hour and 15 minutes, but the 747 schedules decades ago already were around an hour faster than at the time when some press praised the new project with enthusiasm. Conspiracy theories suggested that the idea should scare airlines away from the Airbus A380. Traditional Boeing client Japan Airlines immediately showed interest, whereas the renowned analyst Richard Aboulafia expressed doubts from the beginning. No airline placed any preliminary order, the enthusiastic project was sacked and surely it was one reason why Boeing’s long-standing CEO lost his job. ‘Dreamliner’ Boeing 787 Around 2000 Boeing undertook studies, dubbed the “Yellowstone” concept: The Y1 being a successor of the 777 and the Y2 finally became the 7E7, baptized 787. It’s a classic twin-engined twin-aisle layout for long-haul services on less frequented routes, with a 20% lower fuel consumption compared to previous aircraft in its class. The concept of using at least 50% composites (by weight) was a goal when the 787 “Dreamliner” had replaced the commercially unrealistic dream of the Sonic Cruiser. Boeing’s chief engineer Walt Gillette, who led already the design teams for the 777, the 747X and the Sonic Cruiser, stated that the General Electric GEnx and Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines provide 7 to 8% of the plane’s improved efficiency. And – “the news is to build a fuselage out of carbon fibers” (Aerospace America, May 2004). It’s easy to understand that the innovative design scheme led to delays and “Boeing Commercial Airplanes president Scott Carson was a casualty of the fall-out from the bungled programme, having retired and been replaced by Jim Albough…” (Flight Intl, Oct27, 2009). The Dreamliner got an elegant nose and the winglet fashion ended. Bigger windows and a sophisticated interior design with a friendly 3+3+3 seat arrangement in the economy class were announced from the beginning. However, the first planes were ordered by airlines in the dull 2+4+2 layout. The 787 has ameliorated aerodynamics and it also was described being a “more electric airplane”. First version built was the long-range 787-8 for 250 passengers (3-class), followed by the stretched 787-9 for 290 passengers and the 330-seat 787-10. The 787-8 had its first flight in December 2009 and delivery to launch costumer ANA has took place in 2011. The larger 787-10 absolved its first flight in 2017. Airbus A350 Airbus’ answer to the Boeing 787 was the A350, initially intended as an improved copy of the A330. Boeing’s orderbooks for the 787 however proved the necessity of developing a new aircraft with a wide fuselage for a 9-abreast seating layout, also in consideration of the twins’ victory versus the quads. With a new wing, constructed largely of composites, and with aluminium-lithium and carbonfibre composites in a hybrid-construction used for the fuselage, the A350XWB became a completely new aircraft. “We were chasing economics to provide the lightest possible aircraft”, said chief engineer Gordon McConnell (Flight Intl, May04, 2010). The plane is to suit the fragmentation of the long-haul market, predicted already by Boeing. The A350 was scheduled for 2010, two years behind the 787-8, but like in the case of its competitor, the innovative technology required more time. And, like the B.787, it has got an elegant nose, reminding the beauty of the Comet. In 2013 it had its maiden flight. The 800 series, with 276 seats only slightly larger than the Boeing 787-8, was replaced by the A330neo. The lead variant became the A350-900 with a standard layout for 325 seats, all these series with a long range of c.15,000km. It was delivered in Dec 2014 to launch costumer Qatar Airways. Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines provided the power for the A350 series. Delta Air Lines ordered it as a replacement of the B.747 on the Pacific routes. The A350-900 ULR with only 170 seats was announced for 2016 to revive the non-stop trans-Pacific flights. The A350-1000 variant with 366 seats was delivered in 2018 as a direct competitor to the renewed Boeing 777. Also a stretched variant 2000 became studied. According to British Airways, the A350 and the B.787 were ordered with the intention of replacing B.747s, and the slow-down in A380 orders proved the fragmentation in route planning. All-in-all, the A350, the Boeing 787 and upgraded B.777 variants have become the main airliner generation for their decade. Russian-Chinese CRAIC Under the headline “Russian-Chinese airliner may challenge Boeing-Airbus duopoly”, Philip Butterworth-Hayes has reported in Aerospace America (Sep 2015) the initiative for an up-to-date twin-jet by Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. and the Commercial Aircraft Corp. (Comac) of China, with a configuration “very close to that of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.” A development time of ten years was optimistically envisioned and an equipment with Rolls-Royce or General Electric engines. United Aircraft CEO Yuri Slyusar said that “a new Russian engine could power the planes at a later, unspecified time”. In 2017 the joint-venture China-Russia Commercial Aircraft Corporation (CRAIC) was concluded between Irkut and Comac, for aircrafts’ final assembly in China. The World Airliner Directory (Flight Intl, Oct24, 2017) reported an intended baseline CR929-600 model with a 280-seat limit and a range of 12,000km, plus a larger -700 with 320 seats and a smaller -500 variant. But first the ‘Dreamliner’ and the A350 were victorious.  Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner’, Qatar, Arabian Gulf 2015 (WS)  Airbus A350, Singapore Airlines, Munich 2018. (WS)
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