Airbus has introduced performance and cabin improvements to the A350 widebody featuring an increased mtow and extra space in the cabin. The new standard brings as much as a 1.2-tonne overall weight reduction for both the A350-900 and larger A350-1000, achieved through optimizing systems, structures, and installations on various areas of the aircraft.
Changes include a modified electrical system installation with what the company calls new cable concepts in the crown. Other improvements involve the installation of a new single water tank, a new waste tank, and lighter floor panel heating. In the mechanical system installation, Airbus has introduced new composite ducts for better air distribution along with the increased use of advanced materials in the airplane’s nacelles and pylons.
Software changes regulate the slat and flap positions while a faster landing gear retraction cycle allows for greater obstacle clearance and reduced drag.
With the changes, the A350-900 could, on average, benefit from 3.5 more tonnes of available takeoff weight from a limiting runway, while the larger A350-1000 benefits from an approximate 2.5-tonne improvement, allowing for more payload or range. At some airports such as Le Reunion and Mumbai, the potential takeoff weight uplift gains could improve by more than six tonnes or by more than four extra tonnes at Phoenix and Dublin. Overall, takeoff weight improvements for the newest A350s would occur at some 50 airports into which widebody aircraft operate.
Meanwhile, Airbus managed to add four inches of width to the airplane’s Airspace cabin by resculpting sidewalls. Engineers also achieved a 35-inch increase in length by slightly shifting forward the cockpit wall and rearranging monuments, while repositioning the rear pressure bulkhead by one frame rearwards, allowing for an even larger rear galley.
Although all the improvements constitute a change to the production standard, Airbus declined to specify entry-into-service dates. A spokesman told AIN that Spain’s Iberia and Taiwan’s Starlux each plan on taking some of the earliest examples in a nine-abreast layout, even though the wider cabin permits a 10-abreast configuration with industry-standard 17-inch economy seats.