The Airbus A350-1000 is scheduled to go into operation during the second half of next year made it's maiden flight yesterday. The A350-1000, the longest and largest of the three A350 XWB base models, took off from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, France, and flew for four-hours and 18-minutes, above southwestern France before touching back down at 3:00 pm.
A crew of six explored the aircraft's handling and its flight envelope, the ways in which it can combine capabilities like speed, altitude and angle-of-attack while remaining safe. It was accompanied by a chase plane from which the testing was observed and filmed and a team of experts on the ground also monitored the flight via a live telemetry link.
The A350-1000 measures nearly 74 m (243 ft) from nose to tail, allowing it to accommodate 40 more passengers than the smaller A350-900. Airbus says a typical three-class configuration can accommodate 366 passengers, or a higher density configuration up to 440.