Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Airbus A321neo completes first flight

(Airbus)

The first Airbus A321neo equipped with CFM International LEAP-1A engines completed its maiden flight Feb. 9 from Hamburg, Germany.

According to Airbus, the flight lasted five hours and 29 minutes during which tests were performed on the engine speed variation (low/high), systems behavior and to validate the aircraft’s flight envelope.

CFM International president and CEO Jean-Paul Ebanga confirmed the LEAP-1A engine met its performance specifications.

The A321neo will join the neo flight test fleet and perform a partial flight test program to validate the impact on handling qualities, performance and systems. The first A321neo will be delivered at the end of 2016.

The aircraft, registration D-AVXB, was flown by experimental test pilots Martin Scheuermann and Bernardo Saez Benito Hernandez. Accompanying them in the cockpit was test-flight engineer GĂ©rard Leskerpit and monitoring the flight’s progress were flight-test engineers Sandra Bour Schaeffer and Emiliano Requena Esteban, Airbus said in a statement.

(Linda Blachly - ATWOnline News)

No comments: