For the team preparing the Airbus A350 Freighter (A350F), the upcoming first flight is the result of five years of detailed planning, component and demonstrator testing. As they progress from the 'Virtual First Flight' milestone to the real thing, we sit down with Laurent Bussiere, Lead Flight Test Engineer for the A350F programme – who explains how they are bringing this new freighter flight testing programme to life.
Why does the A350F need a full flight test campaign given that it is derived from the A350-1000?
It would be easy to assume that a freighter built on the A350-1000 needs little new testing. But Laurent explains: “The A350F presents unique dimensions due to the freighter’s specific fuselage configuration – which is equivalent to an A350-900 forward fuselage [length] mated to an A350-1000 rear fuselage [length] and A350-1000 wings. In turn, this creates a new aerodynamic model which affects flight control, while the new geometry for the landing gear affects ground maneuvering.”
He adds: “It’s not an A350-1000 and it’s not an A350-900, but rather it’s between both. So we need to look at the behavior of the whole system with this unique model. That's why we go into the development simulator to prepare for the first flight and the subsequent 400 flight-hour flight test campaign.” (....)