The Airbus A350-1000 successfully completed its first, and unique, ‘early long flight’ on May 11, taking off from and landing at Toulouse, France, with 310 passengers on board, including 10 Airbus flight test crew members and 13 cabin crew from Virgin Atlantic (one of the 12 A350-1000 customers).
During test aircraft MSN065’s 12-hour long flight, the passengers were the first to experience the interior of the A350-1000; these ‘early passengers’ were invited to try out and test the cabin systems, including air conditioning, lighting, acoustics, in-flight entertainment (IFE), galleys, electrics, washrooms and water waste systems.
Though not part of the technical certification program, the early long flight allows Airbus to assess cabin environment and systems inflight and optimize cabin procedures to ensure full maturity at Entry into Service for its customers.
The intensive A350-1000 certification testing is progressing well and on track to reach Type Certification followed by Entry into Service in second half of 2017.
May 17, 2017
Image: Airbus S.A.S. – photo by H Gousse / master films
