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Airbus A350 XWB Development

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Airbus hopes to deliver up to 80 A350 aircraft in 2017: sources

 

Airbus (AIR.PA) tentatively aims to deliver as many as 80 A350 jetliners in 2017, two people familiar with the plans said on Friday.
The target marks a new stage in ambitious plans to raise output of the company's newest long-haul jet to 10 a month in 2018, but depends mainly on how successful suppliers will be in curbing delays in cabin equipment.
An Airbus spokesman declined to comment on the provisional thinking on deliveries for 2017, which would equate to production of just under 7 aircraft a month.

 

More:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbuss-deliveries-idUSKBN13K10D

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A350 XWB: six million passengers flown… and counting

 

csm_A350_XWB_in_service_December_2016_4b
17 JANUARY 2017 FEATURE STORY
Just two years after the A350 XWB’s commercial service entry, over six million passengers already have enjoyed the unique flying experience and well-being provided by Airbus’ latest-generation widebody jetliner – which is shaping the future of long-haul airline operations.
The 62 A350 XWBs in airline service at the end of December 2016 had accumulated 154,000-plus flight hours on more than 25,000 flights, with an average daily utilisation of 12.5 hours.
These aircraft are operated by a growing customer base that currently includes: Qatar Airways, Vietnam Airlines, Finnair, LATAM, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Ethiopian Airlines, Thai Airways International (THAI), China Airlines and Lufthansa.
The A350 XWB version in service today is the A350-900, seating 325 passengers in a standard three-class configuration and offering a flight range of up to 8,100 nautical miles. It will be joined by the longer fuselage A350-1000 – accommodating 366 passengers in a typical three-class cabin layout, with a range of 7,950 nautical miles – which is scheduled for its entry in airline service during the second half of 2017. Both aircraft share the same levels of comfort and operational efficiency.

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Last Airbus A350-1000 Test Jet to Fly in Qatar Delivery Push

 

The third and final aircraft needed to complete flight trials of Airbus Group SE’s enlarged A350-1000 jet is poised to join the test program as the manufacturer pushes to hand over the first production plane to Qatar Airways before the end of the year.
The -1000, a stretched model seating 40 more people than the existing A350-900, is on course for certification in the second half after its first flight on Nov. 24. The initial test plane was this month joined by a second fitted with heavy instrumentation, with the third set to move over in “coming weeks,” François Obé, who heads the A350 marketing team, said in an interview via video link from Airbus’s base in Toulouse, France.
The last aircraft will feature a full cabin and take part in route-proving exercises and flights aimed at confirming the model’s maximum permitted distance beyond the nearest diversionary airport. The so-called extended twin-engine operations -- or Etops -- range is a key limiting factor for two-turbine planes like the A350 when performing trans-oceanic services.
Wingsets for five or six A350-1000s, including the first few production aircraft, have already been shipped from Airbus’s plant in Broughton, Wales, according to Robert Gerrard, the site’s A350 manufacturing and integration manager, who spoke with journalists during a factory tour.
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32747018653_cc45f79a0f_c.jpg
The audience at Airbus’s annual press conference this year may have been a little surprised to hear the company’s senior executives singing the praises of the best-selling widebody produced by their arch-rival, the Boeing 777-300ER.
Airbus chief salesman John Leahy described Boeing’s big twin, which has secured over 800 orders, as “a fantastic airplane”. For regular attendees, this sort of plaudit for the -300ER was nothing new. Airbus commercial aircraft president Fabrice Bregier has previously described the 777-300ER’s market positioning as being “in the sweet spot”.

Although the sun is starting to set on the successful 777-300ER, the aircraft will clearly remain a key part of airlines’ long-range fleets for some years to come. Boeing has delivered just over 700 -300ERs, and has a further 100 or so on backlog. By the time the -300ER programme winds up in three or four years’ time, total production should have run to about 860 aircraft since the first in 2004, Flight Ascend Consultancy estimates.
Boeing secured 19 net orders for the -300ER in 2016 compared with 30 for the A350-1000. Aboulafia expects sales to continue to slow as last-off-the-line -300ER slots are allocated. “I’m not expecting more than a handful of additional 777-300ER orders, and delivery rates will continue to plummet,” he says.
Market dynamics will also see availability of used 777-300ERs increasing, “but not directly as a result of initial A350-1000 customers”, Evans says. “It is happening anyway, as the three Gulf network carriers will replace their older aircraft with the 777-8/9."
In 1974, when Airbus debuted the A300, it introduced to the world the concept of the “big twin”. With the A350-1000 poised to make its service debut this year, we should not have to wait much longer to find out whether Airbus finally has another machine that can own the “big-twin” market.

 

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A350-1000 performed ‘High and Warm’ flight test campaign in Latin America

 

23 MARCH 2017 PRESS RELEASE
With the objective of conducting a ‘High and Warm’ flight test campaign to check aircraft and engine performance in high-altitude, warm and humid conditions, the A350-1000 MSN071 test aircraft flew first to Bolivia before completing its tour in Colombia and then returning to Toulouse, France, after 10 days of flight and ground tests.
The flight test campaign took place at three different airports:
· Cochabamba at an altitude of 8,300ft (2,350m)
· La Paz at 13,300ft (4,054m)
· Barranquilla at sea level, with temperatures ranging between 8°C and 32°C
The aircraft took-off and landed several times at each airport to collect data.
Early test results confirm the good performance and behavior of both the aircraft and its Trent XWB-97 engines. This is a major successful milestone in the aircraft certification flight test campaign.
The A350-1000 is ready for high altitude operations from Entry Into Service later this year.
All three A350-1000 flight test aircraft (MSN059, MSN071 and MSN065) are engaged in the ongoing Type Certification campaign, during which the aircraft is pushed to extreme limits well beyond what they should ever face during normal in-service operations.
With over 1,000 aircraft sold and a backlog of nearly 450, almost 650 Airbus aircraft are in operation throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, representing a dominant market share of 53 percent of the region’s in-service fleet. Since 1990, Airbus has secured more than 60 percent of net orders in the region and in the past 10 years, Airbus has tripled its in-service fleet.

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Airbus puts the A350-1000’s in-flight comfort and operability to the test

 

12 MAY 2017 HEADLINE NEWS
Airbus has taken another step in shaping the future of air travel with its Early Long Flight for the A350-1000, which put this A350 XWB stretched-fuselage variant through its paces during 12 hours aloft.
The Early Long Flight, performed yesterday from Airbus’ Toulouse, France headquarters location, was operated as closely as possible to a typical airline trip, from catering before take-off to onboard service for the 287 passengers seated in business and comfort economy cabin zones.
Passengers were Airbus employees, chosen based on their contributions to the A350 XWB’s development, manufacture and assembly. They were joined by company test engineers in utilizing everything from the in-flight entertainment system and overhead bins to the lavatories. Providing the on-board service was a 13-member cabin crew from Virgin Atlantic Airways, which is one of 12 customers ordering A350-1000s to date.
This Early Long Flight was all about comfort on board for passengers and operability for the airline crew, with the ultimate goal to ensure full cabin maturity at entry into service. The passengers provided crucial feedback from a user’s point of view, and the Virgin Atlantic Airways personnel assessed cabin and in-flight systems from an operator’s viewpoint.
The extended-duration trip utilised one of three A350-1000s employed in the Airbus’ test and certification programme for the jetliner. Departing from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport for the circular flight plan, the aircraft overflew 13 countries – covering southern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, then traversing central Europe on its way to the Nordic countries, followed by a flightpath over the North Sea, Great Britain and Ireland, then rounding the coasts of Portugal and Spain before returning to Toulouse.
Designed for upsized efficiency, A350-1000 variant is seven metres longer than the A350-900 version, which began airline service in 2015. With its stretched fuselage, the A350-1000 accommodates 40-plus more seats in a typical three-class configuration.
The A350-1000 will enter airline operations before the end of this year, offering the same long-range and comfort advantages as the A350-900 – benefitting from the A350 XWB’s proven absolute well-being aloft and the latest in cabin in-flight entertainment, connectivity, lighting and systems.
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A350 cabin finish quality a problem: Finnair chief

 

Finnair sees deliveries and reliability of its Airbus A350s improving but is still experiencing quality issues with the cabin finish of the new aircraft.
"The only thing we don't like is the finish of the cabin," Finnair chief executive Pekka Vauramo tells FlightGlobal during the IATA annual general meeting in Cancun. "There are quality issues still. It seems to take a long time to get them rectified."
Vauramo says these issues cover seating, as well as "lavatories and kitchens".
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​ANALYSIS: Airbus raises tempo in A350-1000 flight-test effort
Cockpit images from the early long test flights of Airbus's A350-1000 in May gave a tantalising glimpse into the performance capabilities of the manufacturer's largest twinjet.
Airbus embarked on a full-scale operational trial of the cabin-fitted aircraft, MSN65, just over three months after flying the jet for the first time, and less than six months after the maiden flight of MSN59, the first -1000 in the three-aircraft test fleet to become airborne.
With a complement of 310 passengers, the aircraft departed Toulouse on 11 May on a circuit around Europe which involved flying east over the Mediterranean Sea to Italy before turning north over Central Europe and tracking towards Scandinavia.
Four hours into the flight, as MSN65 flew along airway Z330 – passing Stockholm Skavsta airport on a course to the RESNA waypoint, which would take it close to Stockholm Arlanda – a cockpit image from Airbus showed the aircraft was cruising at M0.854 at an altitude of 35,000ft.
But it also indicated the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97-powered jet had burned 33.3t (73,300lb) of fuel since departure and had 65.5t of fuel remaining on board. The aircraft's cockpit displays showed a fuel flow of 6.8t/h. Its gross weight at this point was just shy of 259t, indicating it had taken off at a little over 292t.
Read the full analysis here:

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/analysis-airbus-raises-tempo-in-a350-1000-flight-t-437487/

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Airbus says it has capacity to raise A350 production above targeted levels

 

PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus (AIR.PA) said on Wednesday it had the capacity to push the production of its A350 planes above its targeted level of 10 aircraft a month, as its main rival Boeing (BA.N) also prepares to step up some of its own production output.
“We are sticking by our target to increase A350 production to 10 per month by the end of 2018 and we have the industrial capacity to go higher,” said an Airbus spokesman.
He was speaking after aerospace publication Leeham News said Airbus was preparing to push up the output of its new wide-body jet to 13 a month, perhaps by as early as 2019.
Full report here:

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Airbus A350-1000 receives EASA and FAA Type Certification

 

A350-1000-Type-Certification-signature-0

 

Aircraft on target to first customer delivery by year end
Following an intensive flight test campaign performed in less than a year, the A350-1000 has received Type Certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The certified aircraft is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines.
The EASA A350-1000 Type Certification document was signed by EASA’s Certification Director, Trévor Woods, and the FAA A350-1000 Type Certification document was signed by FAA’s International Section Manager, Bob Breneman. Both certificates were handed over to Airbus Executive Vice President Engineering, Charles Champion.
“Receiving the A350-1000 Type Certification from EASA and FAA less than one year after its first flight is an incredible achievement for Airbus and for all our partners who have been instrumental in building and testing this superb widebody aircraft,” said Fabrice Brégier, Airbus COO and President Commercial Aircraft. “The A350-1000 benefits from the maturity of its successful brother, the A350-900, which has translated into excellent right-on-time performance. We now look forward to deliver the first aircraft to Qatar Airways by the end of the year.”
The Type certification is a requirement for the aircraft to enter commercial service. This milestone comes after an intensive flight test trials that have taken its airframe and systems beyond their design limits to ensure the aircraft successfully meets all airworthiness criteria. The three A350-1000 flight test aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce engines successfully accumulated over 1,600 flight hours. Of these 150 flight test hours were completed with the same aircraft in an airline like operational environment to demonstrate its readiness for entry into service.
The A350-1000 is the latest member of Airbus’ leading widebody family, showing high level of commonality with the A350-900 with 95% common systems part numbers and Same Type Rating. As well as having a longer fuselage to accommodate 40 more passengers than the A350-900 (in a typical 3-class configuration), the A350-1000 also features a modified wing trailing-edge, new six-wheel main landing gears and more powerful Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines. Along with the A350-900, the A350-1000 is shaping the future of air travel by offering unprecedented levels of efficiency and unrivalled comfort in its ‘Airspace’ cabin. With its additional capacity the A350-1000 is perfectly tailored for some of the busiest long-haul routes. To date 11 customers from five continents have ordered a total of 169 A350-1000s.
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Airbus delivers its first A350-1000 to launch customer Qatar Airways

 

Airbus has delivered the world’s first A350-1000 widebody airliner to launch customer Qatar Airways at a delivery event in Toulouse, France. The aircraft is the first of 37 A350-1000s ordered by the carrier and is the first ever Airbus aircraft fitted with the revolutionary new Qsuite seats, offering the first ever double bed in Business class. Qatar Airways is the world’s largest A350 XWB family customer with 76 aircraft on order and the largest A350-1000 customer.

 

See:

http://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2018/02/airbus-delivers-its-first-a350-1000-to-launch-customer-qatar-air.html


Edited by flee

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A350-1000 maximum seating rises to 480

Airbus's A350-1000 has been cleared for an increase in maximum accommodation to 480 seats, through the installation of modified exits.

The twinjet had previously been approved for up to 440 seats.

But the development of a new 'Type-A+' exit, with a dual-lane evacuation slide, has enabled the airframer to secure a higher seat count from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.

The 480-seat version would require a 10-abreast layout and modified exits on all four pairs of doors.

More: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/a350-1000-maximum-seating-rises-to-480-462615/

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Airbus begins deliveries of first A350 XWBs with touchscreen cockpit displays option to customers

Airbus has commenced deliveries to airlines of the first A350 XWBs equipped with pioneering new touchscreen cockpit displays. Specially developed for the A350 XWB together with Thales, they will confer enhanced operational efficiencies, greater crew interaction, cockpit symmetry and smoother information management. On 18 December, China Eastern Airlines took delivery in Toulouse of the first A350 XWB equipped with the new devices. To date, around 20 airlines have selected the option for their new A350 XWBs.

Of the A350 XWB cockpit’s six large screens, three can now become touch capable: the two outer displays plus the lower-centre display. These displays now offer touchscreen capability for the pilots when presenting Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) applications. This new method of input complements the existing physical keyboard integrated into the retractable table in front of each pilot and also the keyboard and trackball “keyboard-cursor control unit” (KCCU) located on the centre console.

More:

https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2019/12/airbus-begins-deliveries-of-first-a350s-with-touchscreen-cockpit-displays-option-to-customers.html

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Another A350 variant has been launched...

 

Airbus challenges Boeing cargo dominance with A350 freighter

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/airbus-launches-a350-freighter-2021-07-29/

Airbus to base new A350 freighter ‘predominantly’ on -1000 variant

https://www.flightglobal.com/air-transport/airbus-to-base-new-a350-freighter-predominantly-on-1000-variant/144826.article

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5 hours ago, BC Tam said:

I suppose this will be the base for Beluga XWB in time to come 

That is probably 20 years away! It would be interesting to see how far carbon fibre manufacturing technologies have progressed as they will need to fabricate a huge fuselage extension section for the Beluga.

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