Successful debut of the Airbus A350 - New Technology

At 14:06, after four hours and six minutes in the air, landing test aircraft. Photo: Airbus TV

After 4 hours and 6 minutes in the air, landed the Airbus A350 “MSN1″, the first aircraft in Airbus’ new range of fuel efficient aircraft, after a successful maiden flight.

the minutes at 10:00 am on Friday, 14 June, the Airbus A350 “MSN1″ the first test aircraft in Airbus’ new series of medium-sized long-haul aircraft, out on the maiden flight from Toulouse, where Airbus French factory is located.

– So far, that’s fine and we keep the schedule, reported the first test pilot Peter Chandler during the trip that went over the northern Pyrenees in southwestern France.

At 14:06 the plane landed again, and the entire flight could be followed live on the Airbus website. Shortly after the plane took land provflygarbesättningen opened a door and stuck out a white flag with the text Airbus that fluttered in the wind as the plane taxied to its parking stand.

For Airbus is the successful test flight a PR success. Completed days before the world’s largest aviation trade show opens in Paris, and the same week as rival Boeing again experiencing problems with its equivalent 787 Dreamliner. A plane like the A350 is designed to consume significantly less fuel than older aircraft in the same size class.

Boeing Dreamliner became severely delayed, and then suffered problems with fire in lithium-ion batteries that gave grounded for much of the winter and spring. Airbus had originally planned to use lithium-ion batteries in the A350, but will at least initially, to instead use nickel cadmium batteries.

Airbus is hoping for a quick certification process so that it can start delivering the plane to customers in the second half of 2014. However, it can be tough mean air analyst, and with new design solutions where fiber composites are used instead of aluminum, even Airbus encounter surprises. Five test aircraft will be built in total.

A350 XWB (Extra Wide Body) will be built in three versions to accommodate between 270 and 350 passengers. The smaller versions will compete with the Dreamliner, the larger model is meant to compete even with the Boeing 777.