Aircraft

Airbus has reached an important milestone in its effort to recover A380 production, with the successful power-on of the first aircraft assembled with redesigned electrical harnesses.

The first of the so-called "Wave 2" aircraft with the redesigned harness to enter the final assembly line was MSN026 - an aircraft destined for delivery to Qantas at the end of this year.

© Airbus An Airbus A380 in production

It had originally been due to reach the power-on milestone by the end of last year, but this schedule slipped and Airbus confirms the milestone was reached "at the beginning of last week".

The airframer conceded in March that the build effort for MSN026 had taken longer than planned because it did not want a repeat of the production problems suffered in 2006.