First A350-1000 takes off on maiden flight
The first A350-1000 took off this morning for its maiden flight at Blagnac in Toulouse, France at 10.42 hrs local time, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 turbofans.
The A350-1000 is Airbus’ largest and most powerful twin-engined airliner ever, a fuel efficient large widebody. Equipped with specially developed Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 turbofans, the A350-1000’s first flight is taking place over south-western France.
The crew in the cockpit on board this flight comprise: Hugues Van Der Stichel, Experimental Test Pilot; Frank Chapman, Experimental Test Pilot and Gerard Maisonneuve, Test-Flight Engineer.
Furthermore, monitoring all the test parameters at the Flight-Test-Instrumentation (FTI) station behind the cockpit are: Patrick du Ché, Head of Flight & Integration Tests; Emanuele Costanzo, Head of A350 Development Flight Tests; and Stéphane Vaux, Flight-Test Engineer.
Benefitting from the experience of the original A350-900 test campaign (accomplished in 2014), the A350-1000’s development programme will be shorter – under one year for the three aircraft.
The overall campaign will culminate in the type’s certification followed by its entry into airline service scheduled for the second half of 2017.