Handelsblatt reported that the A350 XWB faced weight issues.

Citing industry sources, Handelsblatt reported yesterday that the A350 XWB faced weight issues. The German daily claimed that Airbus’s new aircraft would still be around eight tonnes over the planned weight. Airbus always refused to reveal a weight target to the public, just saying the A350 XWB would be lighter than its predecessors, but the prototype designed in 2006 weighed 124 tonnes, recalled the newspaper. An Airbus spokeswoman explained to the AFP news agency that “over the development of such a programme, weight is a battle that never ends. It is not unusual to face weight issues at this stage of development”. She added, “What matters is that we can deliver the performances we promised to our customers”, notably in terms of fuel consumption, flight autonomy, etc. “Airbus plans to finalise the detailed definition of the long-haul aircraft’s design at the end of the year”, asserted the spokeswoman, who recalled that the plane maker had resolved a similar weight problem on its A380 superjumbo. According to an aerospace expert cited by the AFP, the group had then solved the issue by increasing the share of carbon –a lighter material- in the A380’s structure. AFP (21/05), La Croix, La Correspondance Economique