The fifth Airbus A350 development aircraft has joined the manufacturer’s test fleet as the aircraft accelerates towards certification and service entry later this year.
MSN005 made its first flight on June 20 from Toulouse, and will be tasked to conduct route proving and ETOPS validation for the test program. Airbus says the aircraft “embodies the operationally definitive configuration for Type Certification duties”, and as such is equipped with a passenger cabin.
The program recently reached its 2,000th flight test hour over about 500 flights, with each test aircraft averaging a flying rate of about 80 flights per month.
