Aircraft

Airbus has released a series of photographs taken during the cold weather testing of the A380 ultralarge airliner in the Canadian city of Iqaluit (formerly Frobisher Bay) last week.

The images below show the aircraft on arrival and during its cold soak overnight trials. The company has not released specific details of the experiments yet, but John Graham, manager of Iqaluit airport says the aircraft had arrived later than scheduled at the Baffin Island city due to mild weather of only -15°C (-5°F) at the beginning of February. By last week temperatures had plunged to around -29°C, Graham says.

Airbus had a team of 55 engineers in the US Air Force-built airport, which won the bid for the tests at last year's Paris air show. Nunavut territory hopes to build on the A380 testing to build the cold weather business up, says economic development minister Olayuk Akesuk. 

Hundreds of Iqalummiut gathered to watch the aircraft take off from the smallest capital city in Canada on its return to France for painting ahead of the Asian Aerospace air show.

All photos © Airbus / P. Masclet