Discussion How much does an Aircraft cost?

Nope. They come under the control of sale of technology act or something. The companies can only sell them to countries approved by the USA

 

Immediate reply - The A350-900 stands for the model of the Aircraft. Here A350 stands for the model/type of aircraft, An Airbus 350. The dash number indicates which type of A350 is it. Generally higher the number, it would stand for a longer aircraft.

However this is pure nomenclature employed by the Manufacturer.

For instance, the standard A320 is called A320-200, however the -200 rating is not used in the series.

The A320 is 123ft long

The Shortest model in the family, is the A318, which is the exact same aircraft, except it is shorter in length. It's around a 103ft in length.

The next model in the family is the A319, which is slightly longer at 111 ft.

Then you have the A320, which is as above, 123 ft long.

And the largest in the family is the A321 which is a 146ft in length.


Where this basically helps the Manufacturer is that aircrafts of different specifications can be manufactured with the same basic design. For a short runway operation, the A318 will perform better than the A320 or 321. The lifting capacity of the wings are the same. The thrust provided by the engines can be increased or decreased (very much like a Car ECU), to match the load requirements.

This also allows for operators to have the same family of aircrafts, serving different requirements, but requiring the same knowledge and certification for maintenance. So instead of having different engineers for different aircrafts, you can simply employ one type of qualified engineers.

Moreover it is easier for Flight Crew and Cabin crew certification. Pilots who have license on A320, can fly the A318, A319 directly, and the A321 with a one day course. This makes it easier again for the Airline.

Similarly the Dash Numbers stand for different lengths of Aircraft models.

For instance, the Boeing 777 has the following models -

B777-200ER
B777-200LR
B777-300ER

The -200 model is 210 ft long, while the -300 model is 242 ft in length.

The ER stands for Extended Range, which basically means that over the previous generation -200, this model has a longer range, more fuel capacity, higher take off weight (again all specified by the Manufacturer).

The LR stands for Longer Range, which basically provides improvement over the ER model -200 even.