Tag Archives: Airbus

The old adage is “God willing, weather permitting”…….. If all goes well, we shall see the first flight of a brand new aircraft, the Airbus A350 XWB. Airbus indicates the A350 XWB first flight is planned for today, weather conditions permitting. The A350 will be the first new commercial aircraft model, excluding variants of existing models, from the stables of …

The A350 XWB program appears to be moving along well towards the first flight of this new aircraft soon. Here is some video of the first taxi tests of MSN1. Below is an official video from the Airbus channel showing the first start of the massive Rolls Royce Trent XWB engines. The white smoke emanates from the engine as the …

The Pratt & Whitney (PW) PurePower PW1100G-JM engine meant for use on the upcoming Airbus A320neo successfully completed its first flight May 15, launching the engine family’s flight test program. Ironically, the engine which is meant for an Airbus aircraft flew on a Boeing aircraft. Pratt & Whitney’s 747SP flying test bed at the company’s Mirabel Aerospace Centre, in Mirabel, …

Airbus S.A.S. has announced the six person crew which will go aboard the first flight of the first A350 XWB to fly, known as MSN1. Two test pilots and the project test flight engineer will be seated in the cockpit: Peter Chandler, an Experimental Flight Test Pilot with Airbus since 2000 and Chief Test Pilot since 2011; Guy Magrin, an …

As part of the preparations of its first flight, the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines have been run for the first time on the Airbus A350 XWB (MSN1) following the start-up of the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU). The A350 XWB is the all-new mid-size long range product line comprising three versions and seating between 270 and 350 passengers in typical three-class …

A student team from SRM University is one of the five teams selected by Airbus to compete in the third edition of the Fly Your Ideas (FYI) challenge. The other teams making the final are from Australia, Brazil, Italy and Malaysia. Team AVAS will now travel to France on June 12, 2013, to present their ideas to a jury of …

The first A350 XWB emerged from the paint shop at the Toulouse, France plant with its Airbus livery on 13 May 2013, marking a new milestone toward this jetliner’s maiden flight in the summer. Rumours abound that Airbus is trying to make the first before the Paris air show. All that aside, what do you think of how the plane …

by Vinay Bhaskara The first fully painted Airbus A380 for British Airways was rolled out of Airbus’ paint shop in Hamburg this past weekend. The first of 12 A380s for British Airways is scheduled to be delivered in July, and is outfitted with 469 seats. British Airways will introduce the aircraft on shorter training flights before introducing it on long …

The fleet of Airbus A320s equipped with the new wingtips called “Sharklets” is growing by the day. During the last fortnight, four new airlines have taken delivery of Sharklet fitted A320s. Spain’s largest low cost carrier Vueling, the largest low cost airline in Spain, took delivery of its first A320 Sharklet aircraft, becoming the first Spanish carrier to do so. …

by Devesh Agarwal European airframer Airbus has installed the two massive Rolls Royce Trent XWB engines on the frame of the first A350XWB to fly, MSN1, Toulouse in France. The Trent XWB engine had received its Engine Type Certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) last month confirming its fulfilment of the agency’s airworthiness requirements. Along with the engines, …

by Devesh Agarwal 25 years ago today, Airbus entered the hither-to US dominated market of narrow body airliners when it delivered its first A320 to Air France. The A320 shook up the market segment with the highest demand. As of today Boeing and Airbus estimate the single aisle narrow body segment to purchase about 20,000 airframes in the next 20 …

Airbus has delivered the initial A330-200F for Qatar Airways, further expanding the list of international carriers enhancing their aircraft fleets with this new-generation freighter. Qatar Airways’ A330-200F is the first of three to be provided on lease from BOC Aviation, and will be used on the operator’s international freight network, replacing A300-600Fs that have been in service since 2002. The …

This video clip highlights key events leading up to the “century mark” A380 delivery — including footage from the first flight, its certification campaign, customer deliveries and more. Read more about the 100th delivery here.

Airbus matching milestones with Boeing, delivered its 100th A380 super-jumbo to national carrier Malaysia Airlines, the airline’s sixth aircraft registration 9M-MNF. Now in its sixth year of commercial service, the A380 is flying with nine world class airlines. To date, the worldwide fleet has carried some 36 million passengers in 100,000 flights. The delivery to an Asian carrier is subtle …

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of its first delivery, the European Airbus A320 narrow body, is ratcheting up the pressure on competitor the American Boeing 737 booking two high profile orders during this month. The first order cames from national Turkish Airlines (THY), which signed a contract, the biggest ever by a Turkish carrier, for up to 117 …

Mumbai based, Jet Airways, has upgraded its Delhi Toronto via Brussels route to be operated by their brand new Airbus A330-300 (A333). The route was previously operated by A330-200’s. The A330-300 will increase seating capacity from 18 in business class and 236 in economy to to 34 in Business and 259 in Economy. The economy class passengers will get some …

German mainline carrier Deutsche Lufthansa has taken delivery of its first A320 equipped with new Sharklets, and becomes the first carrier in Europe to take benefit of the new fuel-saving wing-tip devices. The airline will receive 21 more A320 Family aircraft equipped with Sharklets until 2015. Lufthansa A320 with Sharklets

European airframer Airbus S.A.S. has released pictures of the first A350XWB – A350-900 MSN001 being moved from Roger Béteille A350 XWB final assembly line (FAL) “Station 30” to the Clément Ader area “Station 18” in Toulouse. These are the first pictures of the structurally complete flying prototype aircraft with its wings which include the new curved winglets. The belly fairing …

by Devesh Agarwal United States low cost carrier JetBlue has retrofitted the first Airbus A320 worldwide (N821JB), with the new fuel saving wing-tip ‘Sharklet’ devices. The carrier was able to carry out the retrofit quickly since the aircraft wing had already been modified to accommodate the increased weights of ‘Sharklets’. JetBlue will deploy this and other ‘Sharklet’ fitted A320 aircraft …

The special concourse dedicated for Emirates’ Airbus A380 superjumbos at Dubai airports is now fully functional. Concourse A at Terminal 3, Dubai International Airport, is the world’s first purpose-built facility for A380 the aircraft at Dubai International. It features 20 A380 capable contact gates, and 29,000 square metres of Emirates’ First and Business class lounges. The concourse has 11 floors …