A 350-1000 first flight

[recceguy]

First flight today at Toulouse (France) of the Airbus A350-1000
Nothing to report apart from nice pictures.
Test Pilots : Frank Chapman (UK) and Hugues van der Stichel (France)
Both of them have never been airline pilots by the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDY7oPUti8I

[RexBanner]

Lucky them!

[DaveReidUK]

Test Pilots : Frank Chapman (UK) and Hugues van der Stichel (France)
Both of them have never been airline pilots by the way.

Didn't Frank fly for Monarch for several years ?

[Stan Woolley]

You're right Dave.

Flight-testing the A380, from first flight to certification
Frank Chapman served in the RAF, flying Phantoms and Harriers, for 9 years after graduating from St Catherine's, and then completed a test pilot course in France. From 1990 to 1996 he was a test pilot first at Farnborough and then with the USAF, under an RAF exchange scheme. From 1997-2003 he flew Airbuses for Monarch Airlines. He was also Test Pilot and Senior Coach during this time. Since 2004 he has been an Experimental Test Pilot with Airbus at Toulouse.

[Max Angle]

He is also a display pilot for the Shuttleworth collection at Old Warden and flies everything from their wood and fabric "Edwardians" to WW2 warbirds.

[pax britanica]

A nicely proportioned nice looking aeroplane, hopefully the old 'IF' adage holds true as its good for the UK if Airbus has a successful long hauler

[pax britanica]

A nicely proportioned nice looking aeroplane, hopefully the old 'IF' adage holds true as its good for the UK if Airbus has a successful long hauler

[sandos]

The usual question, do they even have any possibility of using, what looks like, parachutes? I seem to recall there was a "escape hatch" in some test airplanes, but in this one?

[oldchina]

Escape.

I think you can see the cut-out position on landing. If so it's fitted into the fwd cargo door as usual. There would be no reason not to re-fit it.

[El Bunto]

Lovely air-to-air photos now available, but the live coverage was dire. There was a blurry phone-quality video on Periscope and the local French TV station had a live video on Facebook ( for the 60% who use that ) both of which were linked 'officially' from Airbus. At least when Boeing promotes an event you can just go to their website and watch it.

[recceguy]

and then completed a test pilot course in France
... completed THE Test Pilot Course in France. Please.

And yes, acknowledge - a brief stay at Monarch.

[DaveReidUK]

And yes, acknowledge - a brief stay at Monarch.

Clearly he left when he got the 7-year itch. :O

[WindSheer]

Airbus now have a far superior aircraft range to Boeing. The only thing that will keep Boeing going are two simple resaons:

Commonality with current fleets
A lack of available airbus delivery slots

My quote is not an airbus v boeing typical rant! Just a common sense observation.

[pax britanica]

I think there are different approaches between A and B with A being in general terms-ire the 'model range' more inventive and innovative than B . But B have a slot of strength expecially in the WB market as the 777 is such a good platform. Also in Boeings favour is the 787 which is probably the most advanced airliner design around.

I think the big 'if' for Boeing is that should the 777-9X turn out to be a dog (a stretch too far) like the 737-9 then they really do have a problem because A will eat their lunch in the narrow body world for years because the 737 well past its sell by date . However if the stretch triple is a good performer then B will continue to have strong position in the long haul world.

[chevvron]

You're right Dave.
Don't recall a TP called Chapman at Farnborough '90 - '96 and I knew all the EFS/EFW pilots; in any case EFW moved to Boscombe Down in '94.
I suspect he was a Bedford pilot rather than Farnborough.

[DaveReidUK]

Don't recall a TP called Chapman at Farnborough '90 - '96 and I knew all the EFS/EFW pilots; in any case EFW moved to Boscombe Down in '94.
I suspect he was a Bedford pilot rather than Farnborough.

His bio here

http://www.aerosociety.com/Assets/Docs/Events/703/Bios_703.pdf

says he had a spell at Farnborough during his 16 years in the RAF (1980-1996), so not necessarily post-1990

[chevvron]

I was stationed at Farnborough from 1974 untill the end of MOD Test Flying in '94, finaly leaving in 2008.

[DaveReidUK]

The mystery deepens ...

[lederhosen]

I believe he spent quite a lot of time as an exchange officer in the USAF mainly on the F16 avionics upgrade. He has played a major role in the testing of the A350 to date, the success of which reflects very well on him. Nice to see him get the first flight of the A350-1000.

[chevvron]

The mystery deepens ...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he wasn't at Farnborough, just that I don't recall the name as ATC and EFS always had a great social rapport attending each other's p1ss ups etc.
There could be several reasons; as I said he may have been detached to Bedford, alternatively he may have been flying a desk with DRA/DERA/Qinetiq (the guy who flew me in a Hunter had to do one of these tours so I know it happens) or maybe it's just my memory!!

[lederhosen]

Oxford university mechanical engineer, harrier pilot, graduate of the french test pilot school (not a disadvantage if you work for Airbus in Toulouse). He even trained the original Qantas A380 pilots, impressive background!