Airbus A350: Maiden Flight Complete

Airbus has completed the first flight of the A350 successfully. Over 10,000 people at the company's base in Toulouse, France spectated the aircraft which landed 4 hours later. Airbus intended to perform the flight to test the basic handling and speed capability of the super lightweight plane, made from carbon-plastic to save fuel. The chief test pilot Peter Chandler said the aircraft was handling 'extremely well'. The aircraft has had 10,000 hours of ground testing so far with a total of 8 years of development costing £11 billion.

Airbus hopes to catch up with American aircraft manufacture Boeing which has received long delays and battery problems which caused many Boeing customers to cancel their orders. If the testing goes well with no delays it should take less than 18 months with customers including Qatar Airways, British Airways and Cathay Pacific. The A350 apparently will do a fly past at the Paris air show later on this month.

EADS who own Airbus are using around 50% composite materials and have built a facility that can generate 55% of the required energy. The company has promised to make it the most environmentally friendly aircraft in the world.

Airbus plan to build a second version of the A350 in the future which will compete with the existing B777 made by Boeing.

 

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Wizz Air A320 Emergency Landing

A Wizz Air Airbus A320 from Bucharest to Rome Ciampino crash landed on the runway at Rome's capital airport last Sunday.

The aircraft was on approach to Runway 15 at Ciampino used by mainly low cost airlines when the crew made the decision to go around, due to an unsafe left landing gear indication. After climbing up to a safe altitude, the plane diverted to Rome Fiumicino because longer runways were availble. The flight performed a low fly past to confirm the left landing gear had not extended which was confirmed over radio by Air Traffic Control. The plane landed safely, with the pilots trying to keep the left wind level for as long as possible.

Passengers evacuated the aircraft which was less than 2 years old. It has previously had maintenance checks in May this year. The flight was carrying165 passengers and 6 crew which only 3 people were treated for minor injuries.

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Runway Closed Due To 'Engine Fire'

This morning, a British Airways A319 bound for Oslo turned around after both engine cowlings flew off and trails of smoke were seen out of the starboard engine.

Passenger reports said that the pilot spoke on the PA system and sounded 'calm' and said that everything was running 'normal'. Shortly after this, another loud bang was heard and the right engine was seen on fire.70 passengers and 5 crew safely evacuated on the runway with 3 people being treated for minor injuries.

The plane closed one of the busiest airports in the world, Heathrow. This resulted in single runway operations cancelling many flights due to over capacity. British Airways cancelled all of its short-haul flights out of Heathrow until 4pm to prevent further delays and disruption at the airport and blamed the fault on a 'technical issue' with the aircraft.

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