Editor's note: This is a condensed version of Airchive.com editor Chris Sloan's post on the maiden flight of the Airbus A350. You can read the full post and see photos at Airchive.com.
The first half of 2013 has certainly been a busy year in the annals of commercial aviation. In January the worldwide fleet of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was grounded, not taking to the skies again until May.
On Valentine’s Day, American Airlines and US Airways announced a blockbuster merger, creating the world’s largest airline and effectively ending the legacy airlines consolidation game in the United States.
In early March, Bombardier rolled-out the CSeries CS100, the first in a line of airliners that could not only be a game-changing regional jet, but possibly challenge the Airbus A320/Boeing 737 duopoly. These headlines alone would make any year exceptional, but midway through the year another major event loomed large.
On June 14th, Airbus flew for the first time what is likely to be the last “totally clean sheet” large airliner of the rest of this decade – the Airbus A350 XWB. Even with roughly 2 days notice, there was absolutely no way I was going to miss this historic event. I, along with many others, had suspected June 13th or 14th would be “D-Day” for the A350, so I had my bags packed and reservations on hold just in case.
The final assembly of MSN-1, the A350 prototype, began on April 5, 2012. On February 7, 2013 the European Aviation Safety Agency certified the A350’s Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines. Less then 3 weeks later, the first A350 rolled out of the final assembly line on February 26, 2013. By March 26, 2013 Airbus announced that APU and RR Trent’s had been installed on the MSN-1.
April bought 2 major order announcements: a new A350 customer in the form of British Airways’ parent corporation International Air Group and an additional aircraft request from Singapore Airlines. After a flurry of production news in the months leading up the launch, Airbus went into “radio silence” about the MSN-1’s final assembly, but on Tuesday June 11th, Airbus reported that the initial ground taxi tests were complete, and that the A350 would take to the skies for the first time on Friday June 14th at 10:00 AM Toulouse (CEST) time.
Within minutes, I cleared my calendar, confirmed my flight reservations and made plans to leave for Toulouse the next day. With an ATC strike going on at the time, this was no easy task but I was determined to be there, finally arriving late on Thursday June 13th. At 7:30 AM on Friday June 14th, I was on a bus (the kind with 4 wheels) at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, a jet-lagged mess heading for the Airbus Henri Ziegler Delivery Centre where we would witness this historic milestone. It was hard to believe that the first Airbus A300, the world’s first twin engine wide-body jet, had flown for the first time 41 years ago. Now the once-nascent European upstart (along with Boeing) is one of the world’s two leading aircraft manufacturers.
As we made our way to the opposite side of the airport, we noticed throngs of plane spotters lining the runways. The favorable weather forecast predicted light winds and partly cloudy skies, in direct contrast to the cold, cloudy day before which seemed like it could have threatened the best-laid of plans. In this case, timing would be everything. Airbus decided on a firm 10:00 AM CEST departure and it was going to be happen whether the press were ready or not.
At 9:15 AM, we were transported via bus to a large field parallel to runway 14R/32L where Airbus’ third-generation wide-body twin would take off for the first time. We learned that Airbus set a record that day with this particular A330 configured in a high density, single-class 416-passenger configuration – the most ever on an A330. At 9:50 AM CEST, with winds 6 mph out of the NNE, A350 MSN-1 lined up on the threshold of the runway. At precisely 10:00 AM they began the take-off roll. The Rolls-Royce Trents were so quiet that the cheers from our audience were the only clue that the big twin had begun its maiden flight. Weighing in at “only 221 tons”, we leaped into the sky to cheers, tears, and applause. It was a powerful moment, only interrupted by thousands of camera shutters.
A chase plane and numerous helicopters followed the climb over the next 4 ½ hours, beaming down impressive, live multiple-camera coverage of the A350 in-flight to the more than 50,000 people watching the Airbus live web stream and millions others watching on TV across the globe. It is safe to assume that this was the most covered first-flight in history.
There was no mention of when the next test flight would occur, including the much-speculated fly-over of the Paris Air Show the following week. Chris Young, the Rolls-Royce Project Director on the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines provided the next briefing. Young boasted “The Trent XWB is the world’s most efficient jet engine. It takes in tons of air a second. The fuel is burned at half the temperature of the surface of the sun. Each of 68 turbine blades generates the power of a Formula 1 car.” Indeed, today’s first test flight was operated at the maximum 84,000 pounds of thrust on each engine at take-off.
With the A350 MSN-1 due back within the hour from its maiden sortie over Southwestern France, it was time for everyone to head back out to the viewing area adjacent to the runway. I sprinted across the field to be in the first photography position for the landing, even though the threshold point would be at some distance from our cameras. Traffic at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport came to a standstill foreshadowing the planned runway fly-over as cameras began pointing skyward. At precisely 1:50 PM CEST the flight crew performed a breathtaking fly by at around 800-1000 feet, and the raucous cheers and applause almost drowned out the Trent engines.
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