Airbus followed up its earlier test flight of the all new A350 with a spectacular fly-past at the Paris Air Show this week.
A350 XWB F-WXWB, the very first A350 built flew over Le Bourget to the delight of spectators on its third test flight since the maiden voyage on 14 June.
The new Airbus was designed to be one of the most fuel-efficient planes ever designed, and is the company’s response to Boeing’s troubled-but-popular 787 Dreamliner. Carbon-fibre reinforced plastics form the bulk of the fuselage and wing design, making it not only lighter than previous jets but also incredibly fuel-efficient and easy to maintain.
Airbus aims to build three variants of the A350 XWB (short for ‘extra-wide body’): the A350-900 (314 seats in a three-class layout), the A350-800 (270 seats in a three-class layout) and the A350-1000 (350 seats in three-class configuration).
The competition is certainly hotting up between Boeing and Airbus – which do you think is the more radical machine?
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Image credit: famille.sebile on Flickr.