Four A350-900 flight test aircraft fly in echelon formation
Photo by: Airbus
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) granted the Type Certification for the latest Airbus airliner, the A350-900, on Tuesday. This is an essential precondition to, and opens the way for, the aircraft entering commercial service with its customers. It is expected that the US Federal Aviation Administration will grant its certification to the new aeroplane in the near future.
The A350-900 is the first member of Airbus’ A350 XWB new generation airliner family. The other member will be the larger A350-1000. Both will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines. While the A350-900 will, on average, accommodate 315 passengers, the A350-1000 will have an average capacity of 369.
The previously proposed smaller A350-800, with an average capacity of 276 passengers, has been frozen. Airbus now believes that the A330neo (new engine option) will be a better aircraft for that market segment.
“Receiving the A350-900 Type Certification from EASA is a great achievement for Airbus and for all our partners who have contributed to designing, building and certificating [sic] this fantastic, new generation aircraft,” affirmed Airbus president and CEO Fabrice Brégier. “The A350 XWB embodies many extra innovative technologies which will make all the difference in passenger comfort and airline efficiency.”
One of the companies involved in the A350 XWB programme is South Africa’s Aerosud, which produces the advanced composite frame clips for the aircraft. Several thousand of these are installed on each aircraft and their function is to secure the fuselage outer skin panels to the fuselage’s skeleton-like structure. Furthermore, Cobham South Africa manufactures the satellite communications antennas for the aircraft.
“The A350 XWB manufacturing programme has also been innovative and ambitious, aiming for a fully mature aircraft at entry into service and this is what we are proud to be delivering to our first A350 XWB customer, Qatar Airways, before the end of the year,” he stated. “Our fleet of five test aircraft completed the certification campaign, on time, cost and quality. Accumulating more than 2 600 flight hours, we created and successfully achieved one of the industry’s most thorough and efficient test programmes ever developed for a jetliner.”