Airbus PR out this morning — "Finnair today signed a firm contract for eleven A350XWBs as well as seven additional long-range aircraft (a mix of A340-300s and A330s). It is the first airline to convert its order for nine of the initial A350, placed in December 2005, into the new A350XWB, and to simultaneously increase the number of aircraft ordered.
The new A350XWB will feature the latest innovations in terms of advanced technologies. Amongst those is the use of all-new, easy to maintain and much lighter Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) paneled fuselage skins. This innovation in manufacturing permits easier maintainability and reparability of individual airframe parts, while also allowing the structure of the panels to be much better optimized in terms of design to the stress and load requirements of each individual airframe part. Over 60 per cent of the airframe will be made of new materials."
So Airbus is staying with panels on the XWB.
