of the decade the number had reached 586
- not bad for an aircraft that was still to make
its rst ight. After some development delays,
the initial air test milestone was achieved
on June 14, 2013 when A350-900 MSN 1
(F-WXWB) got airborne for the rst time. Six
crew members were on board for the historic
4hr 5m ight: Peter Chandler, Airbus’ chief
test pilot; Guy Magrin, project pilot for the
A350 XWB; Pascal Verneau, the A350 XWB
project test ight engineer; Fernando Alonso,
head of Airbus’ ight and integration test
centre; Patrick du Ché, head of development
ight tests, and Emanuele Costanzo, lead
ight test engineer for the Trent XWB engine.
The Airbus reached a height of
25,000ft and a speed of Mach 0.8 during
the ight. Speaking shortly after the air
test, Peter Chandler said: “The biggest
compliment I can give is that, after the
rst few minutes it didn’t feel like we were
doing a rst ight. It felt like we were
ying an aeroplane at the end of a test
programme, not the beginning. It was so
relaxed and so predictable.”
There then followed an extensive
testing phase, which utilised the rst ve
A350s off the production line. The ight
trials would last for more than 2,600
hours and ran from mid-June 2013 to theend of August 2014. EASA awarded the
A350’s type certi cation on September 30,
2014, and the USA’s FAA followed suit on
November 12.
The A350 XWB features the ‘Airspace
by Airbus’ cabin, which according to the
manufacturer is designed to enhance
comfort and well-being on long ights.
The aircraft has a super quiet cabin
and features the latest air conditioning,
temperature management and mood
lighting systems, with an optimised
cabin altitude and higher humidity
levels. It also features the latest in- ight
entertainment and WiFi systems, with
full connectivity throughout.LAUNCH CUSTOMERS
On December 22, 2014 Qatar Airways, the
type’s launch operator, took delivery of
A350-900 A7-ALA, the sixth example off
the production line. The jet entered service
on the Doha-Frankfurt, Germany, route on
January 15 the following year. The carrier
equipped its A350 with 36 business class
seats (which convert into 80in [203cm]
full- at beds) in a 1+2+1 layout, while
economy to the rear features 247 seats
(3+3+3) at 31-32in (75-81cm) pitch. Finnair
was Europe’s rst A350 XWB operator,
and received the rst of 19 examples on
October 7, 2015. Other carriers to use early
examples were Vietnam Airlines, Brazil’s
TAM and Cathay Paci c.
Next it was the turn of the larger -1000.
The assembly and pre-equipping of the
rst wingbox for prototype, F-WMIL (msn
59), started at the Broughton, North Wales,
factory in August 2015, followed by the
delivery of the forward fuselage to Airbus’
Hamburg/Finkenwerder plant and the nose
section to Saint-Nazaire, France, a month
later. The parts were then transported to
the nal assembly line (FAL) in Toulouse to
be joined up, which was completed in April- The rst example entered the nal
construction phase in mid-2016.
The -1000’s body is 23ft (7m) longer
than its -900 sister design, with 11
http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 37
Right: An A350-900 performing an
early test ight. S Ramadier/Airbus
Below: Qatar Airways was the launch
customer for the -900 and the -1000
versions of the A350. Illustrated is
A350-1000 A7-ANA (nearest to the
camera) in formation with -900 A7-
A LY. P Masclet/Airbus‘Transporting cargo
is lucrative for
airlines, so the
extra capacity is
a massive plus for
the big Airbus’