Technical Route Proving Mission Completed
The world's largest commercial airliner, the 555-seat Airbus
A380, has successfully completed a series of technical route
proving missions, the last of the trials needed for type
certification. Representatives with Airbus tell ANN the superjumbo
received an enthusiastic welcome at each destination.
Returning from its final route that took it over the North Pole,
the MSN002 landed in Toulouse, France at 1:30 pm local time
Thursday. This final flight left Vancouver, Canada under heavy snow
conditions, on Wednesday, November 29 at 4.25 pm local time (00H25
UTC) .
The exercise took the A380 MSN002 across the globe on an 18-day
trip, stopping at ten airports in the Asia/Pacific region. During
the trials, the aircraft flew approximately 69,000 nm over some 152
flight hours, on a test flight schedule conforming to airline
standards but with Airbus flight crews.
All flights performed on schedule. Airworthiness Authority
pilots from both the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also participated in the
technical route proving, and flew the aircraft on four legs.
A major highlight of the exercise was the Johannesburg-Sydney
trip over the South Pole, where the A380 demonstrated its
capability to fly ultra long-range routes at maximum payload. The
A380 departed Johannesburg, South Africa, its maximum take-off
weight of 1,223,565 lbs and was the heaviest aircraft ever to take
off from O.R. Tambo International Airport, located at 5,323 feet
above sea level. This trial demonstrated the A380s excellent
performance at high altitude airports. The aircraft landed at
Sydney airport after a flight of around 16 hours covering a
distance of 7,296 nm, circling the South Pole on the way.
As Aero-News reported, the
technical route proving started on November 13, with four trips
which included visits to Singapore and Seoul on the November 14 and
15, then to Hong Kong and Narita, Japan. On the third trip, the
aircraft went to China, stopping at Guangzhou on November 22 and
Beijing and Shanghai the next day. The fourth and final journey
included the round-the-world trip via both poles with stops in
South Africa, Australia and Canada.
At each destination, the A380 demonstrated it can be turned
around as per normal airline operations. Checks were made on
standard maintenance and behaviour, as well as typical airport
operations and compatibility. This included the monitoring of
functions such as bridge docking, cleaning and catering, refuelling
and boarding procedures. The automatic landing capability of the
A380 was also successfully demonstrated during a local flight
performed at Johannesburg.
Airbus says the A380 is on track to receive certification from
both EASA and the FAA by the middle of December.