Composite class: developing the Airbus A350-XWB

The future is plastics, as the young Dustin Hoffman was memorably told in the 1960s classic film The Graduate. For the aerospace industry, it was certainly some distance into the future. It’s only now, more than 40 years later, that polymers are starting to make serious inroads in the construction of aircraft; but the era of the plastic plane is well and truly with us. Boeing’s 787, the first major airliner to be predominantly made from composites, is expected to be certified later this year. Meanwhile, the Airbus A350 XWB, which also makes heavy use of the lightweight material, is currently in the final stages of preparation before a planned first flight in 2013.

The XWB in the designation stands for ’extra-wide body’, and the A350’s cabin will seat nine abreast in standard class and eight in premium class the company claims that each seat will be 1.3cm wider than the equivalent configuration of the aircraft’s chief competitor, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. In fact, the entire concept of the aircraft was originally conceived as a response to the Boeing 787. Initially proposing an updated version of its previous wide-body jet, the A330, the company responded to criticism of a lack of ambition by launching a programme to design a lighter-weight, more aerodynamic airliner that could match the Dreamliner’s claimed 25 per cent reduction in fuel consumption compared with its predecessor.