Is Airbus Hiding a REVOLUTION?!

who or what is the biggest threat to Airbus right now and are they secretly about to release a real Revolution with boing in the situation that they are right now you would think that the Airbus would just be sitting back relaxing and selling planes as fast as they can but actually it turns out that they can't really do that because both Airbus and Boeing have another looming crisis to think about a crisis that won't be waiting for anyone and that's why behind closed doors Airbus are actually working on a brand new aircraft right now stay

tuned now I have looked at Boeing's recent troubles in a series of videos over the last few weeks and actually I've been releasing videos about Boeing and it's 737 well before the max 9 blowout that happened in January obviously in those videos I've been looking closely at how these boing problems will also affect Airbus and more generally how these two industry Giants compete with each other in this current environment now in one of those recent videos I focused on how Boeing and Airbus did financially in 2023 and where they find themselves today but what I

actually want to do with this video is to try to look at things from Airbus point of view and how they are focusing on the future boing today isn't really in a position where they can threaten Airbus in any plausible way since Airbus has an order book that is B bigger and growing faster than boeings now all that that actually means is that the disparity between the two Aviation Giants could actually just grow larger over time since Airbus could use their higher revenues to effectively outd develop whatever Boeing does and of course that's if the

American manufacturer actually decides to develop something new at all but this doesn't mean that Airbus is completely free from troubles they are at a much lower scale than Boeing where wores obviously but the European manufacturer still has plenty of headaches and these primarily include aircraft delivery delays Airbus delivered 735 aircraft in 2023 which beat their target of 720 deliveries and obviously eclipsed boeings 528 but in 2019 before the pandemic Airbus delivered 863 aircraft we actually have to go all the way back to 2017 to see delivery similar sarly low as last years were so Airbus

would like to get back to and obviously supersede those pre-pandemic numbers as soon as possible but this might still take a couple of years to achieve in fact they have recently informed their customers to expect even more delays this year and way into 2025 this is mainly because of problems with their suppliers who are struggling to ramp up those earlier production rates due to looming Supply chains issues that just still doesn't go away but more importantly for this video These delivery issues should just reinforce what I was saying in the beginning with boing struggling Airbus

has every reason to just concentrate on increasing their production and nothing else because they're actually in a situation right now where some Airlines at least have started picking the 737 Max over the Airbus A320 Neo only because the delivery slots for the Airbus jets are now literally years further down the line than the Boeing jets are so this should logically be even more reasons for airb to just focus on boosting their production and avoid trying something risky like launching an allnew jet for example but the thing is that their large order book doesn't mean that

Airbus can afford to become complacent as Scott Hamilton in leham news pointed out a few months ago if they're not careful Airbus could easily make some of the same strategic mistakes that has gotten boing into the situation that they are today you see the love that Boeing management have shown for financial indications like free cash flow stock BuyBacks and general focus on shareholder values are not unique to the American manufacturer Airbus also does stock BuyBacks and some of its organizational changes seem to mirror boings in a lot of different ways for example Airbus actually tried

to sell off some parts of their Aeros structure business in a very similar way that Boeing spun off Boeing Vega to create Spirit Eros systems back in 2005 now Airbus didn't find any buyers for them then which I'm sure that they're quite happy about now since they backed away from that strategy but in other parallels to Boeing Airbus has also had to deal with quality control issues in their production lines particularly in Hamburg Germany where they have been making nearly all of their Airbus a321 NEOS of course the difference is that Airbus didn't get any

quality escapements like Boeing did with the max instead those quality problems led to even longer delays there are also some worries that Airbus have been slipping a little bit with complaints about problematic inservice support particularly from airlines in the United States and finally some Airlines have quite comically actually been complaining that Airbus are less willing to offer lower prices for big orders now than they used to be now frankly that's not really a surprise given that their order books are completely full and that they're selling more planes than they're making of course eventually those orders

might start to slow down especially if Airbus successfully increases their production rate but to be perfectly honest if I was selling something that was flying off the shelves quicker than I could make them I wouldn't give out rebates either but as far as the near future of the European companies concerned the real Jack in the Box is the smaller Airbus a220 as the single aisle demand continues to shift from the Airbus A320 to the bigger a321 Airbus will likely try and expand production of the current a220 lineup and eventually maybe even launch a stretched variant

to fully replace the Airbus A320 Neo and of course hit boing 737 Max 8 when they do as I talked about in a recent video now that might sound like an easy and logical progression but let's think a little bit about what that involves in practice today Airbus makes the A320 Neo family in France Germany China and the United States the Airbus a220 on the other hand is made only in Mirabel in Quebec Canada and in the United States in the same Alabama facility where the A320 is also assembled so knowing that how will Airbus

actually expand the a220 production enough so that it will replace the Airbus A320 well I guess they could eventually convert some of their A320 assembly lines in Germany or France to start making a220s in Europe but we will probably have to wait to see the answer to that question it is clear however that this won't be an easy transition to do especially since Airbus have spent decades adjusting their supply chain and assembly sites to the Airbus A320 crucially though the fact that Airbus already have an efficient modern jet like the a220 means that the next

all new jet will likely be a little bit bigger than that their next jet could coexist with the Airbus a220 and replace the a321 Neo when the orders for that one starts drying up likely near the middle of the next decade now I know that the middle of next decade sounds far into the future but if you think about it it's not too far away at all especially when you consider how long an aircraft development takes so what will that aircraft be like then well as it turns out we recently got a glimpse of exactly

the sort of airliner that Airbus has in mind and it looks frankly awesome but with that awesomeness also come some quite serious challenges challenges that could actually end up impacting airb much more than any competition from Boeing could and I will tell you all about that new plane and those challenges after this so what is this awesome looking thing you might wonder well this is my Sleek new hover pan courtesy of novium today's sponsor novium is a brand that creates unique Innovative high-end products aiming to inspire curiosity and develop creativity which is something that I

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one of these beauties for yourself use the link that is in here below and remember to use the code Mentor for an awesome 10% discount with free shipping to most countries thank you no now let's continue on the 15th of December last year a French politician called Roland lure posted a really on the face of it boring tweet lur is the French Minister Delegate for industry and the post that he made made included four different images now the first three were the kind of stuff that we usually see from politicians meetings speeches and group photos

but the fourth image was something much more interesting it was a rendering unfortunately at a very lower resolution of an aircraft that we haven't seen before but when you look at it this plane was clearly an Airbus and had the kind of Livery that Airbus normally uses for showing their future Greener aircraft Concepts like the c e and new Greener airliners was exactly what this politician's meeting was all about which obviously then also included some people from Airbus now you won't be surprised to hear that most people didn't even notice this tiny photo of a

plane in this politician's tweet so my props again goes to John ostra and will gizon in the air current who sniff it out you see in the past few years Airbus have been very keen to present themselves as a company that invests heavily in research and development they have showcased many different projects looking at different areas like wings with flexible wing tips more advanced composite Wing constructions and of course the z e hydrogen project now between them all of these small projects add up to something that could become the next Airbus airliner but aside from

some interesting hydrogen aircraft renderings we haven't really seen anything that realistically showed us what this next Airbus airliner would be like until now this lower resolution image might well show us the finished puzzle that all of those technological pieces has ended up creating but the way and the venue where this image was revealed also tells us a few things about the sort of obstacles that Airbus will face if they want to turn this from a concept rendering into a real aircraft now I'll get back to that a little bit later but let's first have a

closer look at this rendering and figure out what kind of aircraft Des sign this is actually representing first of all how big is it is this just an enlarged turbo prop to replace let's say a 100 seater jet well actually it doesn't look like it and we know that because of a feature that we have all talked about a lot lately on Boeing aircraft if you look closely this Airbus plane has a mid cabin exit door with more windows behind them and then another door further back we're obious viously having to speculate a little bit

here but a door like that generally means that this aircraft has seats for more than 189 passengers possibly even more than 200 unless it doesn't have over-wing exits which aren't really visible in this rendering but I think it looks like there is at least one over-wing exit here and there's also a hint of markings on the wing to guide passengers out in an evacuation this would mean either four or five emergency exits on each side of the aircraft which would hint at something in the current A320 or boing 737 Max size range again such an

aircraft size makes sense if we assume that Airbus sticks with the a220 well after ending the production of the Airbus A320 and 321 Neo because even when the a220 is lengthened Airbus will still need a bigger plane to replace the Airbus a321 obviously the most prominent feature of this new aircraft designed are those engines under the wings or rather under and in front of the Wings and if you are a regular viewer of this channel I'm sure you already recognize them and if you're not it's time to subscribe now go on yes these engin clearly

seem to represent the CFM rise which is an open fan engine design that should be ready for operational use at about the middle of next decade and that obviously coincides with the service enter date of this Airbus concept another feature of this this aircraft that is really subtle at least from this angle are the shape of the Wings there is a noticeable curve along the length giving them a gall Wing appearance and this is likely to make it possible to fit those engines under the wing without their blades ending up cutting a trench in the

ground underneath them because these CFM rice engines will produce similar amounts of power as the current engines on the 737 or the Airbus A320 families but the diameter of those open fan blades would be closer to that of a Boeing trip 7 engine in fact they likely won't be far off the diameter of the plane's own fuselage which will definitely be a quite interesting look to see but it also means a huge increase in bipa ratio and with that efficiency but now you might ask why put the engines under there why wouldn't it be better

to just put them in the rear where previous open Fant test aircraft have had them like the MD80 and the 727 well the answer here is probably that fitting the engines under the wings makes it possible for the whole aircraft structure to remain much lighter Airbus could have gone with a high-wing design instead but that would have also increased the weight of the aircraft this gwing design will require some additional internal structure but Airbus must have decided that this is the best overall compromise to enable this engine installation and actually some of you might remember

that we have actually seen a rise engine design under a goal Wing before this was during the original presentation of the CFM rice engine and you can definitely see a family resemblance between that low wi design and the new Airbus conceptual rendering that we can see here but this New Concept also have other features with clear Airbus lineage as I said before Airbus has been experimenting with designs featuring folding wing tips however these wing tips won't just fold when the plane is on the ground like on the boing 7x now they will of course do

that as as well and that in itself is a big deal because it allows the aircraft to still park at the same airport Gates as the current a320s and 737s do while still allowing a wing that is longer overall giving it a very high aspect ratio but Airbus has also tested a configuration where the wing tips are then unlocked in flight for load alleviation purposes or locked at a 10° angle for better handling and stall characteristics during takeoff and Landing so why is that important well I've made a video about the concept that boing is

exploring in collaboration with NASA for an aircraft with transonic trust braced wings or ttbw and with a prototype called the x66 alpha Boeing has actually already begun work on this prototype which was originally an MD 90 and that plane will also have super long very high aspect rtio wings but in that case the truss brace is there to support the structure of the thin long wing and make it possible for it to support the loads but from the look of this rendering it looks like airb are hoping to skip the need for that elaborate brace

which comes with its own weight and drag penalties instead it looks like they are going to try to solve the support issue with their super high aspect radio wing with the help of those flexible wing tips now according to the air current Airbus has confirmed that this is an authentic picture of one of their Concepts but not a definitive one which of course makes sense in any case the name that Airbus will use for its next all New Concept design is the next Generation single aisle or ngsa but I'm just going to refer to it

here as Nagisa now there is a lot more to be said about this future concept but the question remains why would Airbus even bother with it if competition from Boeing isn't enough to trigger Tri the launch of an all new Airbus plane then why are they doing it well the answer is actually quite simple legislation and here is where a little bit of that controversy and also that worry that I was talking about before comes creeping back into the story so Boeing is working on its own future Concept in partnership with NASA meaning that some

US government funds are going into it through the NASA involvement and if we go back to that tweet from the French Minister we will also find something similar there because the topic of that post was a contract between Airbus and the French government for funding towards the development of future carbon free aircraft now Government funding for new aircraft designs is obviously quite a sensitive topic boing and Airbus and with them the United States and the European Union have just come out of a really long and costly trade War involving but both sides saw us illegal

subsidies this is the longest trade dispute in the history of WTO so it's in our common interest to solve it this started in 2004 and didn't end until 2021 with both sides placing tariffs and hindering trade with each other as it was going on now nobody wants to see that happen again so what kind of money are we talking about this time well Boeing's funding through NASA to develop its transonic trust brace Wing prototype is 425 million divided out over 7 years and over in Europe Airbus just signed a contract that will see them and

other industry partners and startups received 900 million e or around $970 million over three years now this isn't actually an Apples to Apples comparison since Airbus themselves aren't getting all of this money some of it is going towards development of sustainable Aviation fuels for example and to be clear this money is still only a small fraction of what it it's needed to actually launch even a relatively conventional new aircraft and crucially a lot actually probably most of this European money is not there to help Airbus design its next new airliner European governments want to promote

carbon free aircraft either running on hydrogen or battery electric power if that technology becomes viable on smaller planes and some of the funding is going straight there France has already banned some short flights between destinations that have good fast train links and other European countries could soon introduce similar legislation and that Prospect and other initiatives and potential limitations is what Airbus is now regarding as its next challenge and that's a much bigger challenge than any competition that boing could ever Mount the problem for Airbus is that the Naga might not be good enough in this

form at least for the Europeans unless it's almost completely carbon neutral but still if you imagine that it's very likely that between the super efficient new engines and the Revolutionary flexible High aspect radi you gowing this aircraft could be as much as 30% more efficient than the Airbus a321 Neo which would be really revolutionary remember the 737 Max and the A320 Neo families are already 13 to 15% more efficient than the previous generation and that is in itself regarded as a fantastic achievement but as long as this aircraft is run on normal jet fuel it

obviously still won't be carbon neutral now of course it could likely run on sustainable Aviation fuels or saf which is nearly identical to regular jet fuel and can be made in carbon neutral ways but wouldn't it be even cooler if Airbus is actually designing this Naga as a platform that would eventually transition to a different fuel like hydrogen as as I said before the colors of the concept in the French Minister's tweet are those that Airbus uses for its z e hydrogen aircraft this concept has passenger Windows all the way back to the tail but

what if Airbus designs it so that the rear section behind the mid cabin exit doors could be turned into space for hydrogen tanks which is something that we have seen on previous Airbus z e Concepts now to be perfectly clear I am only speculating here but Airbus have pledged that they will introduce a hydrogen powered airliner in the 2030s it is quite plausible that even if Boeing isn't a direct threat to their plans Airbus are right now designing something that will be a good basis for their aircraft designs that they will be making later on

during the century something that they could even be scaling up to larger sizes if needed what do you think let me know in the comments below please also consider sending a super thanks if you think that I've earned it or join my patreon crew to hang out with me directly in our next Zoom hangout have an absolutely fantastic day and I'll see you next time bye-bye