November 10, 2023, ©. Leeham News: We are discussing the different design phases of an airliner development program. After covering Conceptual, Preliminary, and Detailed design, we now discuss prototype manufacturing and testing.
Today, we look at the different flight test aircraft needed and their roles.
November 3, 2023, ©. Leeham News: We are discussing the different design phases of an airliner development program. After covering Conceptual, Preliminary, and Detailed design, we now discuss prototype manufacturing and testing, Figure 1.
Today, we look at the role of the first flying prototype.
October 27, 2023, ©. Leeham News: We are discussing the different design phases of an airliner development program. After covering Conceptual, Preliminary, and Detailed design (Figure 1), we now discuss prototype manufacturing and testing, where we today go deeper into structural testing.
October 20, 2023, ©. Leeham News: We are discussing the different design phases of an airliner development program. The typical phases and their time use and manning are described in the Gant chart in Figure 1.
After covering Conceptual, Preliminary, and Detailed design, we now discuss Prototype manufacturing and Testing.
October 13, 2023, ©. Leeham News: We are discussing the Detailed design phase of an airliner development program. We have discussed program management methods, development techniques, tools for Detailed design, that improved production methods are as important as improved technology, and that the interaction with the suppliers is key.
But another consideration that affects detail design is the influence of the Certification process. Certification has a major influence on the program work in every step of the aircraft program.
October 6, 2023, ©. Leeham News: We are discussing the Detailed design phase of an airliner development program. We have discussed program management methods, development techniques, tools for Detailed design and that the production methods today are as important as technology for achieving aircraft performance.
Another decisive part is how to involve and manage the suppliers to a project. The supply chain contributes about two-thirds of the value of an aircraft. Methods and tools to control this part of the project are therefore critical for the program.
September 8, 2023, ©. Leeham News: We described the Preliminary design phase of an airliner development program over the last weeks. Now our project is transitioning into Detailed design.
It’s the most challenging part of the project as we now go from perhaps a thousand people involved at the OEM into tens of thousands and even more people at consultancies and suppliers.
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By Bjorn Fehrm
September 7, 2023, © Leeham News: The advertised range of 4,700nm for the Airbus A321XLR enables true trans-Atlantic single-aisle routes that can originate further inland, both in the US and Europe. When EASA and FAA demanded that Airbus add extra fire protection around the tank that gives the extended range, rumors told of a substantial range loss.
Last week we could see that whatever the weight increase, the range loss is not substantial. Now we look at what Airbus could do to restore the range of the A321XLR.
September 1, 2023, ©. Leeham News: We described the Preliminary design phase of an airliner development program last week. One could say this was the classical way that aircraft projects conduct Preliminary design.
There is a different way that Conceptual and Preliminary design can be run. It’s more along the lines of pre-development of functions, as a reader commented on two articles back.
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By Bjorn Fehrm
August 31, 2023, © Leeham News: The advertised range of 4,700nm for Airbus’ A321XLR enables true trans-Atlantic single-aisle routes that can originate inland both in the US and in Europe. It was, therefore, worrying when EASA and FAA demanded that Airbus add extra fire protection in the area where the new center tank is placed, the tank that enables the longer range.
Extra fire protection increases the empty weight, which has an impact on range. How much is lost, and what can Airbus do about it? We model the range shortfall and possible fixes with our Aircraft Performance and Cost model.