As expected, new Airbus President and CEO Christian Streiff took advantage of Farnborough 2006 to unveil a substantially revamped A350 family — now redubbed A350 XWB, "for Extra Wide Body, Extra Comfort, Extra Efficiency and going the Extra mile for customers". Airbus has finally given in to pressure from the market. There is no longer any question of an A330 derivative; the XWB — set to be formally launched in the next few weeks — is a completely new aircraft, in terms of fuselage, wings, engines and systems, though the company will maximise carryover of experience from past and ongoing programmes, particularly the A330/340, A380 and A400M.
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