Trends: what are 4/5 actions or trends that occurred (or are occurring) across varying

airplanes find in the first group of readings?

1. Densification: redesigning current aircrafts to increase capacity in the cabin to gain more
revenue
- Additional rows, less legroom, slimmer seats, skinnier bathrooms

 
(a) Examine the A-380 article; then compare the reason in the article to the “Causes of
New Product Failure” noted at the end of Chapter Seven  
- Wanted to different from other cargos by being larger, more capacity and more luxury.
- Expected prediction: passenger number doubling every 15th year, a larger plane would
help ease this bottleneck: however, this did not happen.
- Gamble of future market  Today: smaller more efficient and cheaper aircrafts are
wanted.
- Too little market support
- Too expensive aircrafts: the 4 engines are less efficient than newer engines found on
late model twin engine aircraft. Also, they couldn’t get the weight down on these
engines.
- Harder to fill up planes with routes that has sufficient demand.
- Wrong target segment
- Faulty estimate

1. Fault in manufacturing  led to delay of almost two years and billions in extra costs.
2. To start with, Airbus was building a large four-engine aircraft when the other model in
that segment, the Boeing 747, was already in decline. Smaller twins, particularly the
Boeing 777, were already becoming a success. Airbus was chasing the wrong target.
3. Then there was the fundamental problem with its design: engineers designed the A380-
800 with the stretched -900 already in mind. That is one reason, among others, why the
aircraft has this huge wing that gives it exceptional range, but also makes it heavier than
it would have been had it been optimized for its size. The same is true for other parts of
the aircraft, such as the tail.
4. Commercial disadvantage with engines: three years later, when they had not
even delivered the first aircraft, GE and Rolls had engines with 15% better SFCs
that they were bringing out for the 787. That left Airbus at a commercial
disadvantage, which was very unfortunate. (Weight not taken out)
5. 787 and A350 enabled airlines to operate those aircraft at the same or lower costs
per seat than the A380, without the risk of having to fill 200 or more extra seats—
almost by definition a drag on yields.
6. Timing: The delay caused the production to be ready just when the global financial crisis
unfolded.
7. redesign or reengine the aircraft remained unsuccessful for years.