News
A350 XWB completes cold-weather testing in Iqaluit

Jan. 29, 2014, Iqaluit, Nunavut – Airbus’ A350 XWB MSN3 development aircraft with a team of 48 Airbus
specialists have arrived at Iqaluit, Canada for several days of cold
weather trials.

The various tests for the aircraft its engines and
its systems include a ‘cold soak’ down to minus double-digit
temperatures. The scope of the trials include: APU and engine starts
after cold soak; verification of system behaviour; low-speed taxi and
rejected take-offs; thrust-reverser tests with snow.

This latest phase of the development test programme
comes only days after MSN3’s completion of the “hot-and-high” tests in
Bolivia. Since the A350 XWB’s first flight with MSN1 on June 14th 2013,
over 890 flight test hours have been performed in close to 200 test
flights by both MSN1 and MSN3. In total the A350 XWB flight test
campaign will accumulate around 2,500 flight hours with the fleet of
five aircraft. The rigorous flight testing will lead to the
certification of the A350-900 by the European EASA and US FAA
airworthiness authorities, prior to entry into service in Q4 2014.