Aircraft

The Airbus A380 flight test programme reached its 1,000h milestone yesterday.

Since the first prototype took its maiden last April, three other test aircraft have joined the programme and MSN001 clocked up the 1,000th hour after it took off from Toulouse at 09:40 (pictured below). Airbus used the flight over southern France to test the flight control system’s performance in strong winds.

MSN001 and 002 development aircraft are fitted with heavy test instrumentation and being used for aerodynamic, low speed and flight vibration tests. The third and fourth aircraft have been flown to Hamburg for cabin installation and both aircraft will be used for simulation long-range (or “early long”) flights of around 12h taking off and landing at Toulouse with a cabin full of Airbus employees in the second quarter. The aircraft will then be used for route-proving flights later this year.

All aircraft so far are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. A fifth aircraft will join the flight test programme in mid-2006 fitted with Engine Alliance GP7200 engines.

The target is to reach 2,500h between the five aircraft by the end of the flight test programme and ahead of certification later this year.

Following hot and high tests in Colombia and cold weather trials in northern Canada, hot weather testing will take place mid-year in Africa.

External video: Below is a video of the 12-month manufacturing process of the Airbus A380 compressed into 7mins.