The world’s newest airliner, the Airbus A350-900, has successfully completed a series of Route Proving trials, the last hurdle for Type Cert...
The A350 XWB arrived back in Toulouse, France on August 13th(17:00 UTC) coming from Helsinki, Finland. The 20 day trip was conducted using the flight test aircraft, MSN 005, flying across the globe, with stops at 14 major international airports world-wide.
The aircraft flew approximately 81,700 nm /151,300 km in some 180 flight hours, with all flights performing on schedule. The aircraft was operated by Airbus flight crews as well as launch customer Qatar Airway's flight crews on the route from Doha to Perth, Moscow and Helsinki. The Airworthiness Authority pilots from the European Aviation Safety Agency also participated and flew the aircraft on two legs.
The technical Route Proving commenced on July 24th in Toulouse/France and comprised the following destinations: Frankfurt, Singapore and Hong-Kong. On the third trip, the aircraft visited Johannesburg, Sydney, followed by Auckland, Santiago de Chile and Sao Paulo. The fourth and final journey included Perth followed by Doha, Moscow and Helsinki.
During the trials, A350 successfully operated from Johannesburg Tambo International Airport, located at 5,558 feet (1,694m) above sea level, to Sydney, demonstrating capability to operate from high altitude airports. The flights from Johannesburg to Sydney and Auckland to Santiago de Chile demonstrated also its capability to fly ultra-long-haul routes or Extended range Twin Operations (ETOPS).
A350 is scheduled to enter service with Qatar Airways in Q4 of this year. Route Proving trials are conducted to demonstrate its readiness for airline operations on a global scale.
