A350 XWB evacuation slides are manufactured by the same US supplier than those shown in the 787

Air Cruises is a company with 78 years that can be considered the world leader in evacuation systems with over 60% market share. Since 1987, AirCruisers has been a subsidiary of the Zodiac Groupe of Paris. The merger provided synergy for both that strengthened both companies' positions in their respective markets.

 

They invented the first inflatable evacuation slide and provide evacuation systems to Airbus for A320 family and to Boeing for almost all the models, including 787 in the picture below.

 

Air Cruisers offers a complete line of inflatable safety products: evacuation slides and slide rafts, life vests, life rafts and helicopter floats. They produced the first one-person life raft, the first inflatable life vests and the first vacuum packed inflatable life vest, and remains after 60 years of innovative ideas and experience, the industry standard for aviation inflatable safety technology.

 

The future of the A350-800. Not abandoned but delayed as the successor to the A330.

Boeing engaged in a public campaign to cast doubt on the viability of the -800. Airbus has poorly defended the airplane, and its efforts to switch customers to the -900 further casts doubt. But officials insist the -800 has a future. The question is, when?

The current entry-into-service plan for the family is the A350-900 in the second half 2014; late 2016 for the A350-800 and 2017 for the A350-1000.

 

There are only two A350-800s scheduled for delivery in 2016, with the bulk in 2017, when the A350-1000 is due for delivery in reasonably sizable numbers.

Leeham News were told from several sources that Airbus is switching customers from the smallest model to larger versions in part to de-risk the program. Schedule on the A350-900 is already tight and resources are focused on this sub-type. Switching customers relieves pressure on these limited resources.

 

Another reason, expressed by Leahy: the A350-900 is more profitable for Airbus (though Airbus is offering incentives valued at “millions of dollars” to switch). Leahy also says switching to the A350-900 gives customers earlier delivery slots. In Leeham News are not quite sure how, but this is what he said.

Leeham News believes the increasing demand for the A350-1000 will prompt Airbus to re-sequence the EIS, moving the A350-800 from 2016/2017 to 2018. This will open slots in 2017 for the A350-1000 and ease integration pressure for Airbus.

 

But will Airbus keep the A350-800? “Our checks in the market with customers so far suggest the answer is yes. Abandoning the A350-800 will totally cede the middle-twin-aisle sector to the 787 and we doubt Airbus wants to do this.”

The A330 will be approaching its 30th year from EIS in 2024, and by then will reach the end of its natural life cycle, if not somewhat before. Airbus needs to come up with a solution to replace the A330.

Based on the article “Assessing the A350 program” published by Leeham News

A350 XWB first flight-aircraft MSN1 could make Paris Air Show flyby but will not land in Le Bourget.

The timescales of its previous airliner launches suggest Airbus could be ready to fly the aircraft in mid-June, depending on weather and ground trials, giving pilots a narrow time window to test the plane's basic characteristics in flight before the June 17-23 air show.

With just a few hours in the air, industry sources say it is unlikely that the first completed A350 XWB, rolled out of the Airbus paint shop only last week, will actually land at the show. Test aircraft require special permissions to land and only some airports are certified for those purposes.

 Airbus has painted -for the first time in it´s history- the A350 logo on the belly fairing. Such belly markings are typically used for branding in air show flyby.

A flying debut is the signature moment in the development of any new plane, when the industry goes into publicity overdrive. A 600km trip from Toulouse to Le Bourget is surely the unannounced-target of Airbus; date of first flight is not certain, and those of the following flights are even more uncertain as you will never know what issues have to be resolved. So, if one of the test flights can be combined with a flyby at Le Bourget it would be a bonus, but not a priority.

"If everything goes well, you can do a quick check of cruise performance even on the first flight," said Claude Lelaie, who was head of flight testing at Airbus before he retired.

"Everyone is usually anxious to have a very preliminary idea of performance, and especially fuel consumption," he said.

Based on the article “First flight nears, A350 could make Paris show flyby” published by Reuters

Emergency scape for test-crew located in the main cargo door

For the first aircraft that will start soon the flight tests campaign with the target of EIS in 2014, it has been installed a special emergency evacuation system.

 

Located in the forward cargo door, it will allow the flight crew to get safely to the ground in case of emergency. Test pilots and engineers will wear lifejackets, helmets and parachutes in some flights with the first “heavy instrumented aircraft” in order to test the extreme performance and all type of limit situations that might occur in the life of the plane.

Why an additional exit for flight tests?

In the FAR 21.35 (d) provision is made for the flight test crew for emergency egress and the use of parachutes. Passenger doors, emergency doors or windows commonly supplied for passenger usage are not meant to be used in motion, nor on situations encountered on envelope opening of the compliance demonstration process. Regarding the above listed requirements FAR asked for additional safety features to be installed on the flight test articles

 

In case something goes terribly wrong and you decide it is time for the test crew to take a silk ride, you need to depressurize the aircraft to get the doors open. No time for that. So the alternative is this emergency exit with a hatch whose cover needed to be blown away  with some sort of pyrotechnic-explosive for the crew to escape.

The emergency evacuation hatch is fired by pyrotechnic candles in the cockpit and in the flight test engineer station. The crew could go to the door and jump into the red tube with their parachutes to leave the aircraft and get safely to the ground. 

The location of this emergency exit in the main cargo door was the same in the A380 first test-aircraft and makes sense because it is easier to change the cargo door than some fuselage panels if the escape hatch mechanism attached to it.

Other manufacturer like Embraer have similar systems in their bigger aircraft, although this is not the unique configuration available.

click to see more configurations for test-emergency exits

Two first flight-test-aircraft MSN1 & MSN3 in the same hangar. Picture

Finally, It has been published the picture of the MSN1 (with engines) and MSN3 in the same hangar (C63) when they met each other on the 3rd week of April.

The MSN3 was moved out of the FAL on its wheels and spent a few days in the C63 hangar next to its twin MSN1 to undergo lightning tests that are required for First Flight Clearance. After those tests, MSN3 returned to the FAL.

Meanwhile, MSN1 remained for some days in the C63 hangar preparing Ground Vibration Tests and trying to finish the FTI- Flight Test Installation.

The MSN3 has a very similar configuration as MSN1, only with some FTI differences.

A350 XWB First Flight date depends on previous on-ground tests as for example the “rejected takeoff at high speed” test.

Having been painted, the MSN001 will shortly be turned over to pilots and flight-test engineers, who will monitor it from the first flight through more than 12 months of rigorous trials culminating in certification and service entry.

 

Tests to be done before the aircraft gets airborne include running engines through controlled cycles, taxiing at low and high speeds, and a so-called rejected takeoff at high velocity to check that brakes, spoilers and thrust reversers all work properly to bring the aircraft to a controlled standstill.

 

Still, the remaining A350 testing schedule may not be plain sailing, with scope remaining for hitches with the plane’s electronic systems during final trials, according to Tecop International President Hans Weber, a physicist and aerospace expert who advises the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. “Software glitches are one of the biggest worries in these systems,” Weber said in an interview. “Everything on the plane is ultimately controlled by software, and it can be a lengthy effort to find a glitch and fix it.”

Depending on these tests, the First Flight date will be fixed but could be the week before Paris Air Show (starting on 17/June). With a live-video signal that will be follow in all Airbus sites in big video-walls and in streaming by internet all around the world, the event could have a massive media coverage converting this “Toulouse Air Show” in the unofficial start of the Paris Air Show. The take off -around 10 am- will be follow by many people in the other side of the fence of the Toulouse Airport and the flight could take between 4 and 5 hours.

    

Based on the article “Airbus A350’s Paint Job Points to Paris-Show Blow for Boeing” published in Bloomberg

Next step in the MSN001; start of engines … and the typical white smoke.

The start of engines by the test-crew will take place in coming days. With the fire & emergency crews on the stand by, the A350 XWB will “come to live”. The white smoke that we will see is caused by a protective lay of oil burning off.

Testing and monitoring the engines will take two days.