11/18/2023 0 Comments A220 overhead panel![]() There isn't much of an upside to all of this for Team A, is there? Team B could sit back and work on concepts for its new cockpit, then when team A reveals what it is doing team B can cherry pick the best solutions for the new narrow body clean sheet we all know has to happen, along with enhancements it can make because Team A is mostly investing in retrofitting older tech to current platforms. International regulators would need to be involved. Industry wide teams will need to be formed to understand and adapt to the chosen platform. Both would need to be re-certified so it'll be a huge amount of time and money. Think of the following scenario: Team A has to figure out what tech to converge to, then retrofit it to two different existing platforms. Why wouldn't they just work on improving that huge advantage instead of investing a LOT of time and money in both products to reach a converged architecture? Why introduce a huge amount of churn in the platform when it's already in a very strong market position? It gives Airbus a giant "lock in" factor, one that large corporations lust after. In short, the A320's current market stature and projected future market stature is a HUGE commercial advantage. I don't think Airbus is focusing on the whole A320.5 vs A225 issue, they're more than happy with the current line up covering this space and are more focused on extending the lead they have with A321. I see Airbus learning interesting things from the platform, but IMO the evolutionary path will be continued enhancement of the A320 family using the "Wing of Tomorrow" that they've been working on for many years now. I don't really see anyone inside Airbus signaling anything but this, regardless of all the aspirational posts I read here. Personally I see A220 retaining "interesting side project, but just that" status and living/dying on its own merits, rather than the suggestion that it will be the basis of the next generation of Airbus narrow body platforms, because the A320 platform is far more prevalent in the market. Yet converging to A320 style cockpit would mean pretty much re-doing the certification of A220 and getting buy-in from the existing customer base, which is also problematic. If there is to be a convergence, there are a lot of reasons why converging to the A320 makes more sense than converging towards the A220, even though A220 may be more advanced in some ways. Airbus has an ideal "lock in" factor working in the A320's favor, not to mention already owning the intellectual property behind it all. The industry has huge investments in the A320 family in terms of flight sims, knowledge base, etc. It's a major dilemma for the A220 program. Either way convergence will require a lot of engineering work on one or both platforms. Even though A220's cockpit is more advanced in some ways, the commercial realities strongly work against it, IMO. A320 family cockpit tech was mostly in-house (given they were at the state of the art back then) whereas BBD largely purchased tech from what we now know as Collins (. I suggest commonality between A220 series and A321 replacement will be achieved by using the former's systems in the latter. You should not worry about pilot training because as you well know, we treasure our customers: for one plane bought, we retrain your crew (alternatively: N set of crews) for free!įor ordering our all-inclusive offer, don’t hesitate to drop a message” We are pleased to inform you that starting from 1st of January 202X, our A220 and A320 airplanes will come out of the assembly line only in the common A35X (alternatively: 202X) cockpit flavor. What do you think about this hypothetic Airbus announcement? ![]() However, once you would make such a jump, paired with incremental upgrades already done over time, it’s like you’re having a 202X-conceived frame. ![]() These will have to stay behind forever, becoming older and older, because of certification (737MAX would be the perfect example). In an FBW airplane, plenty of parts can be improved incrementally, save the cockpit/systems architecture. In my opinion, such a change would be a huge long-term asset especially for the A32X family. Ok, but why not assume the hit and move on, rather than giving up because it’s difficult? Why not benefit from this most prosperous era ever for Airbus, to prepare the next era? So, how to improve commonality between the two or three lines?Īlmost all of you will answer “Not possible, because it would instantly create an incompatibility in pilot training and certification”. Could be A35X cockpit standard, or even newer. ![]() Imagine what an attractive line-up would be A22X/A32X/A35X having total cockpit commonality at today standards. A32X series have a cockpit designed in the late 80s.Ī22X series cockpit is much newer, from the 2010s, however not designed according to Airbus philosophy.Ī35X newest series cockpit is also from the 2010s.
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