This interview came about because of the publication of a thought leadership piece on the A330neo by CIT Aerospace’s VP Aircraft Analysis Steve Mason which can be found here. (Link edited)
1 thought on “ISTAT 2014 – CIT”
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A clear sight on the situation, but maybe missing some imagination. I think Airbus is actually playing for time and will not make any move this year. Assuming that they want to continue production of the A330 for another decade or two, they know they have to come up with a new engine. But which one? (It will have to be an exclusive) I think that is the crucial question here.
Their strategy might be to keep the productio line busy by introdicing some more performance improvements and the short range version.
It might take two years from now that Pratt might really start working on a larger version of their GTF. And which airplane would be better suited to launch that engine with than the A330? Pratt might even be able to get the weight of the new engine close to the PW4000, and that could make the upgrade for Airbus rather simple and so keep the price of the plane low.
I think that Rolls already feels the threat and that is why they launched their own GTF project. Maybe we will see a battle between them an Pratt for the A330NEO, which should be a feast for Airbus and their customers.