A350 XWB Early long flight

Airbus has completed the ‘Early Long Flight’ campaign of the A350 XWB MSN002, involving two trips with passengers.

The flights were consecutively managed by Air France and Lufthansa cabin crews on 2 June and 3 June. They mark a major milestone towards the A350’s entry into service.

Although these flights are not part of the technical certification programme, they allow Airbus to assess the cabin environment and systems in flight ahead of final certification.

Both the ‘Early Long Flights’ tookoff and landed in Toulouse with the first lasting seven hours and the second for 12 hours.

During the flights, Airbus employees and 30 cabin experts were tasked to trial and test the A350 XWB cabin systems, including air conditioning, lighting, acoustics, inflight entertainment (IFE), galleys, electrics, toilets and water waste systems.

The MSN2 is one of the two A350 XWB test aircraft that accommodates 252 passengers.

Airbus said that the certification testing of A350 XWB is well underway, and the aircraft is on track for certification in third quarter of 2014 with planned entry into service in the fourth quarter.

Currently, the flight-test fleet of four A350s has completed about 1,900 flight test hours and over 440 flights.

The fifth aircraft, MSN005 will be added in the coming weeks, completing the flight-test fleet

As of the end of last month, the A350 XWB had an order book of 812 from 39 customers worldwide.

Image: The A350 XWB Early Long Flights were performed by Airbus test aircraft, MSN002. Photo: courtesy of F. LANCELOT / Airbus SAS.

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