After years of design, months of assembly, weeks of testing, and days of anticipation, Airbus' newest jet, the A350 took to the skies over Toulouse, France last Friday for its inaugural flight. A crew of 6 pilots and engineers flew the test flight, including Airbus' Chief Test Pilot Peter Chandler and A350 Project Pilot Guy Magrin, in front of hundreds of members of the media from around the world. Under the serial number MSN1, Airbus' A350 XWB test flight was completed successfully and went off without a hitch. "[The flight went] pretty well, the aircraft is in good shape," said Patrick Du Ché, Head of Development Flight Tests for the program. Friday's test flight kicks off a flight test program with around 2500 flight hours and 5 development aircraft. The French aircraft maker intends to have the first delivery to a customer in mid 2014 to Qatar Airways.
Labelled a "Boeing-Killer", the A350 XWB is Airbus' response to Boeing's radically designed 787 Dreamliner, which recently experienced problems with its battery system. The company says that its three models, the A350-800, -900, and -1000 each compete with a different Boeing widebody. The A350-900, the base variant, is built to compete with Boeing's 777-200ER in both range and capacity, but boasting a 25% reduction in fuel burn and operating costs. The A350-800, the shortened variant, is designed to compete with Boeing's 787-9 in range and capacity, but boasting an 8% reduction in fuel burn and operating costs. The A350-1000, the stretched and most troubled variant, aims to compete with Boeing's 777-300ER, its best-selling 777 model, but boasting 25% lower fuel burn and operating costs.
For quite a while after the launch of the A350, while the -800 and -900 variants wereselling like hot cakes, Airbus had trouble drawing new orders for the A350-1000, with customers citing that despite a much improved engine that Airbus added to the design two years ago, pushing back entry into service 18 months, the A350-1000 still does not compete with Boeing's bestselling 777 product, the 777-300ER. Recently however, starting with Cathay Pacific's order converting 16 A350-900s to -1000s and adding 10 more to their total, orders for the longest version of Airbus' new composite jet have been rolling in.
With the introduction of the A350, Airbus and Boeing are locked in a renewed battle for the wallets of international airlines who fly long haul flights. After many traditionally Boeing customers turned to Airbus' new jet to replace their aging first generation 777s, Boeing decided to officially launch its 777X program, a project that many inside the aviation industry had known a lot about already, in order to try to stop the bleeding of customers to rivals across the pond. Believed to be the catalyst for the official launch was the decision by British Airways to order 18 of the Airbus craft as part of their replacement program for their 747-400s. Boeing's 777X will include the -8X, the successor to the 777-300, the -8LX, the successor to the bestselling 777-300ER, and the -9X, which will be in a whole new class of capacity for twinjets, comparable to the 747. While these two companies are no stranger to competition in the widebody aircraft department, never before have the two models been so similar to each other.
