Milestone for First Flight Clearance of A350 XWB; the 1g Wing Bend Test performed

The A350 XWB 1g Wing Bend Test has been performed on the EW Static and Fatigue Wing Specimen in IABG facilities in Erding. This milestone marks the start of the EW test campaign and is the culmination of many months´ work.

The EW Test is a combined static and fatigue test for a left hand wing box specifically testing the primary CFRP structure of the wing, as well as high load input zones such as Main Landing Gear and Pylon.

The first tests have proved successful

The 1g Wing Bending Test is performed to demonstrate the safe operation of the high lift and flight control surfaces and systems during flight and ground conditions. It is the first of a series of tests involving the simulation of 1.5 service goals, incorporating maximum wing bending (Limit Load and Ultimate Load) at key points during the test campaign.

The video of the test, which probably will be shared by Airbus in the future, shows the wing bended with the tip in a much higher position than the fuselage barrel.

British lead flight-test pilot for the first flight of the A350 XWB

 

Peter Chandler will be the lead flight test pilot of the A350 MSN1 aircraft. He is not a newcomer… Peter Chandler has been an experimental test pilot with Airbus since joining the company in the summer of 2000. Prior to this appointment he worked for Virgin Atlantic Airways where he was a long-haul captain on Airbus A340s and also a project pilot representing the airline in various industry working groups, and in the early development of both the A340-600 and A380.

Peter Chandler in the A380 cockpit (1st in the left)

Peter Chandler flies all Airbus types from the A300 to the A380 and has been the Deputy Project Pilot for the A380. 10 years ago, he was heavily involved in all aspects of the A380’s cockpit and systems design and development, and now it will be the first time he is involved in a “first flight”. After being participating since April 2005 in the flight tests in the A380 MSN1, in 2008 he was nominated as the Head of flight-test pilots for Airbus civil aircraft.

Peter Chandler was born in 1954 in England and flied in the Royal Air Force for 20 years as instructor and as test pilot after being trained in the famous USAF Test Pilot School in Edwards-California.

Alafco is monitoring development of A350-1000 to study further orders

  

Aviation Lease & Finance Co., known as Alafco, is a Kuwaiti aircraft leasing company that currently has 49 planes operating in its fleet. They will generally refrain from buying new airliners until it gets the first of 117 planes already on order in 4 years, Chairman Ahmad Al-Zabin said.
  

“We need to slow down now or stop rather, until we see what the coming days tell us about the market, about our ability in placing these aircraft,” Al-Zabin said.

Alafco aims to increase operating profit by 10% every year by boosting income from leases on the current fleet, Al-Zabin said. While the company has “good expectations” for the business, it prefers to move cautiously on orders, he said.

 

“The main aircraft we are interested in now is A320 and 737 new generation or -800,” Al-Zabin said. If a good business opportunity arises with a larger aircraft, the company may go ahead, he said.

Besides the single-aisle planes, Alafco has 12 A350-900s on order from Airbus and also already found takers for half of those. While Alafco has ordered A350-900s, it continues to monitor development of the -1000 version. “We study whatever comes up in the market for these aircraft. Things can always change but for the time being we’re happy with the 900s,” Al-Zabin said.

Based on the article “Alafco to Focus on Sale-Leasebacks for Growth, Chairman Says” published in Bloomberg

Sri Lankan Airlines, without cash, is ordering 4 A350-900s ... and 6 A330-300s in the interim.

Sri Lankan Airlines has signed a provisional deal with Airbus to buy 6 A330-300 and 4 A350-900 aircraft for delivery between 2014 and 2023.

The airline, seeking to modernize its fleet to cut fuel costs, will opt for Rolls-Royce engines and use a lease-back arrangement to conserve cash, chief executive Kapila Chandrasena said in an interview.

"The total cost altogether is going to be around USD$1.3 billion. But deliveries are progressively from 2014 to 2023 on a staggered basis," he said. The carrier signed a memorandum of understanding on the purchase with Airbus last Friday, he said.

Sri Lankan Airlines now operates a 22-aircraft fleet including seven A320-200s, seven A330-300s, six A340-300s and two Twin Otters.

 

Chandrasena said the national carrier needs to replace all six A340-300s with A330-300 aircraft and all seven A330-300s with A350-900s.

Chandrasena said the airlines considered offers by both Airbus and Boeing. "We looked at who is giving more value for us. In that discussion, it was apparent that the Airbus offer of A330-300s in the interim and long-term A350-900 is much more favorable than the Boeing," he said.

"Boeing did not have interim aircraft. They were only interested in the long-term offer, which was the 787."

"We don't have cash," Chandrasena said. "So what we are doing is a sale and lease."

Based on the article “Sri Lankan Air To Buy 10 Airbus Aircraft” published in Reuters

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