03 March 2014

What´s going on with the MSN1 A350 prototype?

A350 MSN1 is currently grounded for the installation of the production-standard electrical power center and system, incorporating nickel-cadmium batteries in place of the Lithium-ion power.



Registered with number F-WXWB, its last flight was on 31/January and it has accumulated more than 145 flights with more than 600 hours.



The aircraft will resume testing in comming days in March after one month being upgraded with some FTI removal and installation.



Two months later, in May, MSN5 will supplement that effort, “so we will have 2 aircraft on which to do the certification” said Fernando Alonso, Airbus senior VP Flight and Integration Tests.

Based on the article “Airbus hails mature A350” published in Flight International.

2 comments:

  1. how much weight difference between nickel-cadmium batteries and Lithium-ion?

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  2. The weight impact is estimated around 200 pounds / 90kgs, equivalent to one adult male passenger out of between 270 and 350 passengers and cargo on board.

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