London – The newest aircraft from European planemaker Airbus has successfully completed its maiden test flight.The Airbus A350 is designed to be more fuel-efficient, and a direct competitor to US rival Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.It is seen as vital to the future of Airbus, which competes with Boeing to supply the majority of the world’s airlines with new planes.It took off from Blagnac airstrip in the French city of Toulouse, where the A350 is assembled, yesterday morning. The plane made a four-hour trip and landed back at Toulouse shortly after 1pm.Boeing’s Dreamliner has proved popular since its first flight in 2009, despite recently being grounded by regulators over safety fears relating to its batteries. Airlines are being squeezed by high fuel costs and falling passenger numbers, and are looking for more fuel-efficient aircraft.Airbus claims the A350, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines, will use about 25 per cent less fuel than previous generation wide-bodied aircraft. Like the Dreamliner, the A350 is made largely of advanced materials, particularly carbon composites, in order to save weight. Airbus has already taken more than 600 orders for the new plane, whereas there have been 890 Dreamliner orders so far. The company hopes to start delivering the first A350s to customers by the end of 2014. Analysts say a successful test flight would be a major milestone for Airbus in the A350 project, with major aircraft manufacturing projects frequently beset by delays.“All recent programmes before it, both by Airbus, Boeing and others, have had reasonably horrendous technical problems and delays,” said Nick Cunningham, an aviation analyst at the London-based Agency Partners.“Every time you hit a milestone, such as a test flight, it means that you’ve missed an opportunity to have another big delay.”
