The A320 Replacement From Embraerbus?

Aviation Week has an interesting story to the effect that da Festung is seriously considering some sort of team arrangement when it comes time to develop and build the replacement for their wildly successful smaller aircraft of the A318/319/320/321 varieties.

They've got their eyes on Embraer, so 'tis said. Embraer seems less than enthusiastic, thinking that an aircraft to replace these aircraft and its competitor from the Evil Empire Of The Pacific Northwest is likely to be 8 or 9 years away.

There may be other reasons that Embraer is not falling all over itself to get into bed with Airbus.

It is certainly food for thought for the paranoid, and one might expect that Embraer has studied the operations and track history at da Festung and doesn't see a good reason to throw in with that outfit. You've got to figure that Embraer could probably do this one themselves without any 'help'.

Just the notion that Airbus is heading into a technological dead end with the A350 and have spotted the competition a five year technological edge kind of makes you wonder.

Time will tell.