Finnair A350 tail ready for installation

The first painted tail for Finnair's A350 is ready for the final installation. 

Finnair will be the 1st European airline to fly the A350 XWB and the 3rd operator in the world after Qatar Airways and Vietnam Airlines.

It is scheduled for delivery in Q4/2015.

All pictures Source: Airbus

Vietnam Airlines reveals A350 interior cabin lay-out.

Vietnam Airlines has shared a sneak peak inside its Airbus A350, which will be start being delivered in Q3/2015 with Paris earmarked for the first route.

The SkyTeam member will be the world's 2nd airline to fly the A350-900, following launch customer Qatar Airways.

Comparing with Qatar (283 seats in 2-class interior) Vietnam Airlines has configured a 305 seats interior with 3-classes.

As with its Boeing 787-9, Vietnam Airlines isn't being adventurous with its choice of seats. Selected business class seat is the Solstys model from Stelia (former EADS-Sogerma) that was also Airbus' own choice for its early A350 flight-test prototypes.

It's worth noting that Vietnam Airlines has chosen an entirely different business class for its Boeing 787-9, that being the popular Zodiac Cirrus seat.

Behind the A350's business class will sit a small premium economy cabin, which is suspected to be similar or identical to that of the airline's Boeing 787-9.

The A350 economy seats –with a personal video screen- will be in the expected 3-3-3 layout. 231 seats over 305 will be economy.

All pictures Source: Vietnam Airlines.
Based on the article “Photos: inside Vietnam Airlines' Airbus A350” published by Australian Business Traveller.

Qatar 3rd A350 will not attend Paris-Air Show. It will be flying to Singapore.

Qatar Airways has further adjusted planned Doha – Singapore service opening reservation for A350-900 XWB service, starting 16/June/2015.

The 3^rd A350-900 XWB will operate following flights:

QR938/939     eff 16/June      Daily (Previously operated by 787)
QR944/945     eff 16/July       Daily
QR942/943     eff 16/August  Daily

With these changes, Qatar Airways will operate all-A350 service to Singapore from 16/August, instead of 23/October/2015.

Source: Airbus

With this, Qatar Airways will become the 1st airline to operate the A350 XWB to Singapore, and the airline will further strengthen its position in one of the leading business cities in the Asia Pacific region as a world-class airline providing passengers with a premium travel experience.

“Qatar Airways is proud to be the first airline in the world to introduce the next generation A350 XWB aircraft to Asia, redefining the travel experience of our passengers,” said Qatar Airways Group CEO Mr. Akbar Al Baker.

“We are also delighted to add another flight to this important and strategic route which will provide our Singapore-based passengers with even more options when they travel on business or leisure to key destinations in Europe and the Americas that include London, Paris, Frankfurt, Rome, Milan, New York, Chicago and Houston.” he added.

The new daily flight will be departing Doha at 20:25 hrs and arrive in Singapore the next day at 09:15 hrs, followed by a quick turnaround from Singapore at 10:40 hrs and returning to Doha the same day at 13:15 hrs.

Based on the article “QATAR Airways Begins A350 Singapore Service from mid-June 2015” published in Routesonline.com

Rolls-Royce powered first A350, financed by General Electric.

GE's aircraft leasing arm GECAS -the world's largest lessor- agreed to buy the A350 from Qatar Airways immediately on delivery and rent it back, a routine type of financing called sale-and-leaseback.

The rare decision to invest in rival technology highlights the complexities of keeping ahead in a highly concentrated aviation industry, with GECAS seen as keen to diversify its portfolio even though its parent GE is perceived in the industry as more and more aligned with Airbus rival Boeing.

It is not the first aircraft equipped with rival engines to end up on GECAS's books but such deals are usually kept low key and seldom if ever happen on a high-profile debut of a new jet.

"We have had much interest in taking Qatar Airways' airplanes and leasing them back to us. The deal with GECAS was the best for the airline and so we concluded with them," Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said after the first revenue flight.

Industry sources say there could be several reasons for GE getting involved in the A350. Qatar has a large fleet of GE-powered Boeing 777s and the relationship is crucial, both in engines and financing.

Yet the move highlights a delicate balancing act as GECAS seeks to diversify assets to reduce risk, even as its parent GE forges ever closer ties with Boeing.

Based on the article "GE finances first A350 powered by rival Rolls-Royce" published in Reuters.

Ethiopian Airlines considering 777x and A350-1000 for an up to 20 aircraft order.

Ethiopian Airlines is evaluating the Airbus A350-1000 and the Boeing 777X as it considers further widebody order plans, CEO Tewolde Gebremariam has confirmed to ATW.

Source: Felix Gottwald

“We are evaluating both the Airbus A350-1000 and the Boeing 777X. We have not yet determined the numbers, but we may need up to 20 airplanes,” said Gebremariam.

Source: Airbus

The evaluation started last month and will be finalized after 3 months, several Ethiopian media outlets are reporting.

Source: Lee Halford

In the meantime, the Star Alliance carrier is preparing for A350-900 operations as the entry into service is scheduled for 2016.

Source: Jacob Pfleger

Ethiopian Airlines has 11 Boeing 787s in service and an orderbook of 4 Boeing 777, 2 additional 787 and 12 A350-900.

Based on the article “CEO: Ethiopian Airlines considers Airbus A350-1000, Boeing 777X” published in ATW

Static, fatigue and damage tolerance tests of the A350 winglet.

Tests for the certification of the winglets and wingtips manufactured by FACC have been done at the Composites Lab & Test Center (CoLT), a subsidiary on the company’s premises in St. Martin (Austria).

The entire test specimen (8x2x3m) was analyzed statically and dynamically for long-term and peak loading. The tests also included damage tolerance testing.

Source: Manuel Belleli

Along with standard measurement techniques, for the first time, the FACC subsidiary fully integrated non-contact sensors from GOM in the test setup.

Unlike conventional methods such as strain-gauges the two “pontos” systems recorded 3D displacements and deformations of the winglet.

Optical measuring systems also accelerated the test setup. For instance, 200 strain-gauge positions were marked and applied to the component within one working day.

Source: Clement Alloing

Loads were achieved with 15 servo hydraulic push and pull cylinders, with the force transmitted by 5 yokes. The 2 non-contact sensors measured dynamic deformations at around 220 points, with each point being analyzed 3D.

In addition, more than 2000 synchronized channels measured static strain, deformation, force, pressure and temperature.

During structure testing, the component was loaded statically across several stages to simulate the loads occurring during flight. In this way, the test engineers examined 3 scenarios: maximum torsion and maximum load upward and downward.

During fatigue testing, the engineers ran through real flight profiles to analyze the behavior of the component within one life cycle. During static and fatigue testing, load factors were applied to account for variations in the material properties and possible weight increases in the component.

Source: Teerawut W.

For the damage tolerance tests, the winglet was damaged in advance at certain points. This way, the test engineers simulated manufacturing errors, as well as damage caused by hail impact and bird strikes in order to precisely analyze the effects on material and component behavior under load. 

Based on the article “Non-Contact Measuring Systems Support Certification of Airbus A350” published by  Gom mbH

Air to air video: A350 Qatar Airways 1st aircraft.

This spectacular air to air video available in youtube was filmed on the first week of December/2014 prior to the first delivery to Qatar Airways on 22/Dec/2014. Enjoy!

Click on the picture to watch the video.

Picture Source: Airbus