“Commonality has been part of the Airbus vision from the very beginning,” says Philippe Jarry, who retired recently as Senior VP Product Policy after having served Airbus for almost 30 years. “As early as the mid-1970s, Airbus has planned a series of derivatives of the original A300 to build a full family of airplanes – short haul, medium haul and long haul,” he explains. “Commonality has been part of the game since the beginning.”
The Airbus strategy was very straightforward and the objectives were very simple. Airbus wanted to offer the airlines a full line of products presenting the most extensive commonality possible in order to make training, operations and maintenance easier and less expensive for customers.
If commonality remained a key factor in the development of new airplanes throughout Airbus history, the concept has changed greatly over the years. At first the idea was to have a physical commonality. So, the A310 – the first derivative of the A300 – has been designed using the maximum number of common parts with its predecessor. In particular, it had the same fuselage, shortened by a number of frames. Then, both the A300 and the A310 shared the same Forward Facing Crew Cockpit.
However, in the 1980s – with the development of the A320, the first Airbus single-aisle aircraft, and the introduction of digital fly-by-wire controls – the nature of commonality changed. It was applied to the systems and the way aircraft are flown by the crew. It became an operational commonality. The A320 was the first airliner equipped with fly-by-wire controls operated by a side-stick controller and an instrument panel featuring six large-format electronic colour displays.
A key point of the fly-by-wire technology is the introduction of computers between the pilot’s controls and the aircraft’s control surfaces, allowing the pilot to get the same handling characteristics over an entire aircraft family.
Thanks to the introduction of fly-by-wire on all Airbus aircraft developed after the A320, it has been possible to create a full range of products – from the small 110-seat A318 to the huge, high-capacity, long-range A380 – offering operators an extensive operational commonality that translates into enhanced safety and efficiency.
The commonality of the Airbus aircraft family has been built around the fly-by-wire technology, but it is not the only factor. In fact, commonality has been obtained also because Airbus has been able to design the same basic cockpit for all its planes, based around the same philosophy.
“Beyond the fly-by-wire, beyond the location of the different controls, we have built our aircraft philosophy around the four main pilot’s tasks: to fly, to navigate, to communicate and to manage the systems,” explains Jean-Michel Roy, Airbus test pilot and one of the most experienced Airbus instructors. “To answer those four functions we have brought in new solutions: the fly-by-wire system to fly the plane, the side-stick controllers to control the aircraft, an enhanced flight management system to navigate, new communication means with data link, and the Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitoring system (ECAM) to manage the aircraft systems.”
The benefits of the Airbus commonality are safety and efficiency. The protection included in the fly-by-wire system is a factor in enhancing the safety. The efficiency improvement comes from the drastic reduction of training times. On average, an airline pilot changes aircraft type every five years. During that transition phase – which generally lasts around five weeks – he is not flying commercially. “Thanks to commonality,” says Jean-Michel Roy, “we have been able to reduce training time by taking into account the previous aircraft flown to prepare for the new aircraft to be flown. Typically, we have been able to reduce training time from five weeks to three days to switch, for example, from an A330 to an A340 or two weeks to go from an A340 to an A380.”
That simplification of the transition allows pilots to be qualified on different Airbus models, giving the airlines an unprecedented flexibility in the use of their fleet and their pilots. This Cross Crew Qualification (CCQ) has led a growing number of airlines to Mixed Fleet Flying (MFF) operations. Cathay Pacific Airways, for example, uses its A330 and A340 as a single type fleet with the same group of cross-qualified pilots in order to reduce costs and adapt to market demand.
“The cockpit commonality of Airbus is unique,” notes Philippe Jarry, “and to our amazement, no other airframer has made the decision to follow up despite the obvious advantages offered in terms of safety and efficiency.”
The commonality concept developed by Airbus is also “unique” in another way. Contrary to the purely physical commonality that tends to freeze the introduction of new technologies, the Airbus operational commonality doesn’t introduce constraints and doesn’t prevent the introduction of new technologies or new functions.
“At Airbus,” says Jean-Michel Roy, “we develop aircraft for the market. Clearly, we are developing new standards together with the market and the operators. These standards are based around two pillars: one is commonality, the other is innovation.” Commonality means simply that the basic logic of the cockpit is preserved. Innovation involves the introduction of new technologies – such as very large electronic displays – or new functions such as the “brake to vacate” recently introduced on the A380.
Today, Airbus extends its range of products with a new family of mid-sized wide-body airliners, the A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body). From 2013 onwards these new designs will shape the efficiency of medium-to-long haul airline operations, overcoming the challenges of volatile fuel prices, matching rising passenger expectations and addressing increasing environmental concerns while pursuing Airbus’ trademark: commonality. The A350 XWB demonstrates the same philosophy to initialise and to prepare the flight plan. In addition, on the aircraft’s very large screen it is easy to recognise the basic elements that were developed years ago for the A320 such as the primary flight display or the navigation display. Nevertheless, Airbus introduced its latest innovation development such as the cockpit will include a new generation Flight Management System (FMS) and interactivity. The future A350’s cockpit is a perfect example of that loyalty to the two fundamental pillars: commonality and innovation.
