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Airbus Develops Larger Winglets For A350

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Airbus will introduce larger winglets for the A350 as part of several aerodynamic improvements that will become available for the twinjet later this year. (www.flightglobal.com) More...

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hortod1
dj horton 1
Airbus: have you see the size of Boeing’s winglets? We need to do better than that! Make them BIGGER!!
mrzurkon01
A A 1
That just another way Airbus sucks money out from the airlines with their incremental developments
mpmt06
Mark Thomas 1
As a purchaser of Airbus A350's wouldn't you want the best the manufacturer could offer right at the start? What's with 'incremental developments'? I would feel ripped off having bought first generation planes, someone help me understand...
shenghaohan
Shenghao Han 5
Technology readiness is a major factor, instead of delay a "game" infinitely to perfect it, you release the "game" first then apply patches and DLCs, that way you get money flow coming to develop the "patches and DLC".
For airlines, similar to phones, people like newly designed planes, if you are the first to get the new plane you can use that to lure customers or open new routes without delay. By the time the "upgrades" are available, your airline already got the "high ground" in the route compition, earning profits for years (A350 are already flying for couples of years now, the incremental improvements won't hit the market until 2020). Sometimes airlines buying planes due to the need to replace older planes, so 1-5% efficiency difference won't be too much to bear comparing to 10-20% improvement over the older planes. Of course airline can opt for newer planes of the "first gen" fell short of contraction agreement (see "787 terrible teens"). Airlines buy planes years in advance, they certainly will love to get the plane with the improvements, but that is just an extra bonus.
In conclusion, it is all about shifting money, if you don't buy the first gen, you won't able to fly the route you wanted, no one will develop the improvements, which in turns, you won't get the planes with the improvements.
shenghaohan
Shenghao Han 1
Typed on phone and there are some typos.
Of course airline can opt for newer planes if the performance of "first gen" fell short of what was on the contract. (See 787 "terrible teens")

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