First A350-1000 becomes airborne for its maiden flight

The flight-test programme for the new A350-1000 began today when Airbus’ largest and most powerful twin-engined airliner took off this morning for its maiden flight at Blagnac in Toulouse.

Equipped with specially developed Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 turbofans, the A350-1000’s first flight over south-western France took off from Toulouse at 09.42 GMT.

The A350-1000 is the world’s most fuel efficient large widebody according to the company and will go head to head in the marketplace with arch-rival Boeing’s 777 long-range wide-body twin-engine jet. 

It also just 44 seats short of Boeing’s latest four-engined fuel hungry 747 which makes the so-called ‘big twin’ aircraft a much more attractive long haul proposition to airlines.  

With three development aircraft, the A350-1000 test programme for certification will be shorter – under one year than the previous A350-900 test campaign

The overall campaign will culminate in the type’s certification followed by its entry into airline service scheduled for the second half of 2017.

Watch the take off:

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.

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.

Final preparations are on the way as our crew is getting ready for the #A350-1000 #FirstFlight. Make sure to follow #A350FF. pic.twitter.com/l6b61HQ9vo

— Airbus (@Airbus) November 24, 2016

Recap: