A most unusual formation flight!
(and trust me, it’s highly watchable even for non-aviation bods!)
Dan Gomez recently sent me a link to a news item and video of a quite extraordinary formation flight. It concerns the fleet of five development A350 XWB development aircraft.
This picture was taken from a Press Release in 2013 on the Airbus website announcing the first flight:
14 June 2013
A new chapter has opened in Airbus’ 43-year history as the first A350 XWB, the world’s most efficient large twin-engined commercial aircraft, powered aloft this morning for its maiden flight at Blagnac in Toulouse, France at 10.00 hours local time. Equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent XWB turbofans, the A350 XWB first flight is taking place over south-western France.
An international crew of six is on board, comprising two Flight Test Pilots, one Test Flight Engineer and three Flight Test Engineers. At the controls of the A350 XWB’s first flight are Peter Chandler, Airbus’ Chief Test Pilot, and Guy Magrin, Project Pilot for the A350 XWB. Accompanying them in the cockpit is Pascal Verneau, the A350 XWB Project Test Flight Engineer. At their flight test stations in the main aircraft cabin and monitoring the progress of the flight via an extensive array of flight test instrumentation are the three flight test engineers: Fernando Alonso, Head of Airbus Flight & Integration Test Centre; Patrick du Ché, Head of Development Flight Tests; and Emanuele Costanzo, lead Flight Test Engineer for the Trent XWB engine.
This first flight marks the beginning of a test campaign totaling around 2,500 flight hours with a fleet of five development aircraft. The rigorous flight testing will lead to the certification of the A350-900 variant by the European EASA and US FAA airworthiness authorities, prior to entry into service in the second half of 2014 with first operator Qatar Airways.
Anyway, moving on to the video. Here it is:
Published on Dec 2, 2014
The five test and development A350-900s took to the skies for a formation flight in September 2014, bringing together all of the aircraft used for Airbus’ successful campaign leading to certification of this latest Airbus wide-body jetliner.
(Interesting to note that the video has already been watched approaching 1.7 million times!)
Learning from Dogs 
Interesting for me to watch Paul, as my father was a test pilot many years ago.
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Oh, how interesting. For whom did your father work? I had a favourite Uncle who worked at De Havillands at Hatfield for most of his life, and my son is a Commercial Pilot.
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He was an RAF pilot during the war and through to the early 1960’s. He test-piloted the Vulcan and Victor, though started on what he called ‘string bags’, by which he meant Tiger Moths. In between he flew the Spitfire, Lancaster, Meteor and specialised in flying in electrical storms, about which he wrote a manual for the RAF.
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That’s an impressive record. Those V-bomber aircraft were huge compared to earlier military aircraft. I can well remember seeing the Vulcan perform low passes at air shows in the 60s. When I get to my PC later on, I’ll include a link to a previous post where I show a picture of the wonderful Piper Super Cub I used to fly. Strictly amateur stuff as I never progressed beyond flying on private business, as an Instrument Rated PPL, and a gliding instructor at the Rattlesden Gliding Club in Suffolk. Indeed, Rattlesden Airfield was an ex RAF/USAF base years ago.
Finally, my mother gave me a book for Christmas: Ghosts Of Targets Past by Philip Gray – The Lives and Losses of a Lancaster Crew in 1944-45. Just started reading it.
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I took my father to see Vulcan XH558 fly what was then thought to be its final flight (it subsequently was overhauled and took to the skies again). It flew along the length of the runway at a 45 degree angle with its bomb bay doors open. On the inside of the doors in huge letters was the single word ‘farewell’. It was really quite an emotional experience both for my father and myself.
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You’ve inspired me to write a post about some flying odds and ends for this coming Monday. Do email me anything you would like to have included. P.
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Wow.. what a wonderful 6 and a Half minutes Paul.. Amazing to see it all come together and makes me appreciate the skill of those Pilots when I next take to the air.. 🙂
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Yes, important message that you offer. We all tend to take air transport for granted these days (but I spare a thought for that recently lost Air Asia flight).
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Yes likewise Paul… My prayers were offered up when I heard .. Yet another tragedy at Christmas time..
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