Airbus A350 successfully completes maiden test flight

[Terpe]

Airbus A350 Takes Off In Maiden Test Flight



First Flight LANDING at Toulouse Blagnac - 14/06/13



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, on Friday 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.

Major milestone

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% 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, speaking to French agency AFP.

"So every time you hit a milestone (such as a test flight), it's good news because it means that you've missed an opportunity to have another big delay."

The plane's wings were designed at an Airbus facility in Filton near Bristol, and are manufactured at Broughton in Wales.

[Terpe]

For the Techies:-

A350 marks new phase in aero-engines

A UK aircraft engine claimed to be the most efficient in the world faced its toughest test on Friday.

A Trent XWB, produced by Rolls Royce, was fitted to the new Airbus A350, which made its debut flight from Toulouse, France.

The new engine includes novel technologies designed to shave off weight and minimise fuel consumption.

It is the latest twist in the fierce contest between Airbus and Boeing, which recently launched its Dreamliner.

And to that battlefield, you can also add Rolls-Royce and its US rival General Electric.

Orders for aero engines are worth billions so the competition to win customers is intense.

The Trent XWB was custom-designed for A350, and more than 1,200 of engines have so far been requested.

BBC News was given rare access to the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby to watch the production process.

The first striking feature is the sheer scale of the machine - the diameter of the set of fan blades at the front of the engine is 118 inches (299cm), the largest ever made by the British company and roomy enough to accommodate the fuselage of a Concorde.

The blades themselves, made of titanium, are hollow and strengthened inside by a microscopically small grid construction. GE has opted for fan blades made of composite materials.

The size of the fan enables the engine to suck in enough air to fill a squash court every second, and then squeeze it to the size of a fridge-freezer - what's known as a "compression ratio" of 50 to 1, the highest pressure Rolls-Royce has yet attained.

The larger the flow of air into the engine, and the greater the potential compression, the better the efficiency of the whole process




Blades are made of a nickel-based alloy and are grown in a single crystal




The Trent XWB meets airlines' desire to reduce costs in an era of rising fuel costs


When the mix of fuel and air is ignited, the resulting gas reaches an extraordinary temperature of 2,200C - a higher level than has been achieved before - which is meant to maximise the output of each drop of fuel.

The searing heat of 2,200C is in fact 700C hotter than the melting point of the components in the combustion chamber - including the turbine blades that are driven by this fast-expanding gas.

So each blade is drilled with a network of 300 tiny holes about the size of a human hair. This allows cooling air to flow in a thin film over the turbines' surface and act as a form of insulation.

To withstand this exceptional heat - and the massive pressures involved - the 68 turbine blades are made of a nickel-based alloy and are grown in a single crystal to avoid the risk of any internal fissures becoming sources of weakness.

The result is that each blade, driven by the expanding gases, generates as much power as a Formula One car, spinning an internal shaft that drives the massive fan blades at the engine's front



Testing has involved running the power unit in freezing temperatures...

According to Chris Young, director of the XWB project, the engine is the result of several years of work by scientists and engineers seeking a series of incremental improvements.

"There are a large number of individual technologies in there, individual system designs which contribute a per cent here, half-a-percent there, a few tenths there.

"We've managed to deploy all the latest technologies on the engine - it's the most recently developed, and by putting all that together it's the world's most efficient."

On average, aircraft engines have become about 1% more fuel-efficient every year for the past two decades.

The claims by Rolls Royce will inevitably be followed by similar assertions by GE when its next engines are unveiled.

Airlines facing rising fuel prices are desperate to reduce costs, and the aviation industry as a whole is also under pressure to minimize its carbon emissions.

But as the latest generations of engines become more efficient, any reductions in greenhouse gases are outweighed by the global growth in air traffic, especially in Asia.



...and flying a power unit (blue engine) on the huge A380 superjumbo

Dr Peter Hollingsworth, lecturer in aerospace engineering at Manchester University, said that basic physics meant that there were likely to be limits to how much more efficiency could be extracted from existing designs.

"It's a real challenge. With aviation growing at the rate it's growing, there's not a whole lot you can do. You can do the 1-2% average so over a number of years you get 20% but even that's a real challenge.

"Now that engines are a lot more efficient, a 20% improvement isn't worth as much as it was, so you're always working with diminishing returns and, at the same time, aviation is growing."

The aviation industry has set itself a target of a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 compared with 2005 levels - and there's a recognition that that will only be achievable with a revolutionary shift in designs.

Among the ideas being considered are engines that are embedded within the wings and contra-rotating propellers.

Alan Newby, chief engineer for advanced projects at Rolls-Royce, said: "Ultimately, if we're going to make these radical changes then the aircraft will have to starting looking different.

"It's probably not in the 2020s but beyond 2030 if we're going to achieve the targets we need to get for our customers and the environment."

[Terpe]

A huge technical step for Rolls Royce

[grahamw48]

Yes, all good news, and a beautiful plane.


Why then, on the ITV news report tonight, no mention was made of the Rolls Royce engines, when their feature showed the workforces from both Filton and Broughton (wings and landing gear) ?

[Terpe]

Yes, all good news, and a beautiful plane.


Why then, on the ITV news report tonight, no mention was made of the Rolls Royce engines, when their feature showed the workforces from both Filton and Broughton (wings and landing gear) ?

Seems odd.
Rolls Royce have spent a huge amount of research and come up with the most advanced engine in the world.
Technically, theses latest Trent engines are a true wonder of technology.

[grahamw48]

Seems odd.
Rolls Royce have spent a huge amount of research and come up with the most advanced engine in the world.
Technically, theses latest Trent engines are a true wonder of technology.

Perhaps the bright ITV researchers think they use elastic bands for propulsion.

[Dedworth]

Perhaps the bright ITV researchers think they use elastic bands for propulsion.

There would be full coverage if it was to do with a key topic like toothpicks or suchlike not being made available to immigration detainess

[Michael Parnham]

Perhaps the bright ITV researchers think they use elastic bands for propulsion.

The reason ITV didn't mention Rolls Royce was because the needed the air time for adverts cos that's how they make their money

[imagine]

is Rolls Royce still british?
for some reason i thought it had been sold off

[stevewool]

where i we brought up the test beds for the engines Rolls Royce made was just at the back of our house, Lord street, Allenton, Derby,

[Jamesey]

Those engines are amazing. British engineering at it's best!

The rest of the plane is pretty good too!

[robbie bobby]

I am not really a big fan of change and I will keep using the Boeing 777 until I ant use it anymore.

This aircraft would need to be in service at least 5 years before I would consider jumping onboard.

[Dedworth]

These Bad Dreamliners don't seem to be any good :-

LOS ANGELES— A Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet was “returned to base” on Sunday because of a problem with its brakes, a Boeing spokeswoman said, adding the landing was uneventful.

“It was leaving Houston to go to Denver and it went back to base,” Yvonne Leach told AFP of the United flight. The fleet of Dreamliners was grounded earlier this year when problems were discovered with its battery systems.

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