Airbus A350F takes off on maiden flight

Airframer plans service entry of twinjet cargo aircraft in 2027.
Airbus’s first A350 freighter has lifted off from Toulouse on its maiden flight, commencing a planned nine-month test and certification campaign.

The twinjet – MSN700, bearing the test registration F-WXLD – took off from runway 14R at 10:31 local time, preceded by a Dassault Falcon chase aircraft, for a 4h flight.

Powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines, and with a crew of five on board, it becomes the first new-build Airbus freighter to perform a maiden sortie since the A330-200F in November 2009.

“The market was sending us a very strong signal,” says Airbus head of widebody and freighter marketing Sarah McLaren.

“Operators were coming to us to say they wanted choice. They didn’t just want one option in terms of what they could buy for a large freighter.”

She adds that the updated ICAO emissions regulations, due to enter force at the beginning of 2028, also meant that “you need really new-generation efficiency”.

“We know, from having the passenger aircraft in the family, the efficiencies that we can provide when it comes to important things like fuel burn,” she states.

McLaren says the A350F will offer 40% improved fuel-burn compared with the previous-generation freighters.

“So it is significant to the operating cost of an airline – especially right now,” she adds.

Airbus head of widebody programmes Julien Puyou says the “biggest challenge” was the main-deck cargo door.

“We’d never built such a cargo door inside Airbus,” he states. “We chose to design it ourselves and to build it close to Madrid.”

Puyou adds that another key consideration was ensuring that the freighter could “go through the exact same industrial system” as the passenger variants.

“It gave us an engineering challenge to make sure that the freighter was adaptable to the rest of the A350 system. It gave a lot of headaches to our engineers but, in the end, I’m glad they made it – it’s the recipe for our efficiency.”

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