The world’s newest airliner, the Airbus A350 XWB, has taken off this morning for route proving flights-the final stage towards achieving cer...
The route proving flights will demonstrate A350's readiness for commercial airline operations and will include high airfield performance, auto-landing trials, and airport turnaround and handling services.
These will be the last trials A350 have to undergo to achieve Type Certification scheduled for third quarter of this year, followed by first delivery to Qatar Airways, towards the end of the year.
The A350 flights will be operated by Airbus flight crews with the participation of Airworthiness Authority pilots from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
During the trials, A350 will visit 14 major airports worldwide and will make a flight via the North Pole.
The three week trial consists four trips which started today from Toulouse, France. Trip 1, includes destinations such as Canada via the north-pole and Frankfurt. Trip 2 to Asia, includes visits to Hong Kong and Singapore.
The Trip 3 brings the aircraft to Johannesburg and to Sydney. From Sydney it will fly to Auckland, followed by Santiago de Chile and Sao Paulo before returning to Toulouse.
On the final trip, the A350 will depart from Toulouse to Doha, then onto Perth and back to Doha. From Doha it will fly to Moscow, then to Helsinki from where it will fly back to Toulouse.
The route proving flights is conducted using the A350-900 MSN5, the second fully functional cabin equipped prototype aircraft in the flight test fleet. The aircraft cabin features 42 business class and 223 economy class seats.
