Hasta La Gadget!

With the Paris Air Show scheduled to lift off in earnest on Monday, Airbus is hoping to steal a bit of the limelight. After being conceived in 2004, the A350 finally took the public skies today in France, showcasing a highly-efficient Rolls-Royce XWB engine all the while. The jet is arguably being launched to compete with Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, and as you’d expect, it’s the magic inside of the shell that’s most impressive. The Trent XWB engine was built specifically for the A350, replete with titanium blades and a mixture of technologies that have led to it being deemed the “world’s most efficient” airplane engine… as said by Rolls-Royce, anyway. To date, over 600 orders for the A350 have been placed, but the outfit is hoping to land even more contracts in the days ahead. Ideally, each will ship with a power port in every seat, satellite internet connections and an allergy for mechanical failures. (A boy can dream, right?)

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: CNN, The New York Times, BBC

Airbus is making plans to drop lithium-ion batteries from its upcoming A350 planes. The Wall Street journal reports that Airbus is taking the decision so that deliveries of the A350 are not delayed due to regulations over the lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries have previously caused Boeing’s Dreamliner planes to be grounded after two instances of burning aboard the planes.  Questions have also been raised regarding safety standards of batteries especially sincethe cause of the incidents has not been found.  Last month a fire broke out in a Dreamliner, and although the location of the fire has been found, its cause is still unknown. (more…)

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