Airbus completes first test flight of A350 freighter, targets late-2027 delivery
Airbus completed the first test flight of its A350 widebody freighter on Tuesday, reaching 25,000 feet and flying for four hours and ten minutes. The manufacturer has tallied 103 orders from 14 customers and expects the first commercial delivery in late 2027.
The freighter offers a payload of 111 metric tons and features the industry's widest cargo door at 175 inches.
“We can say it has been built by Airbus, but really it has been designed by the market. The market was sending us a very strong signal. Operators were coming to us to say they wanted choice. They didn’t want just one option in terms of what they could buy for a large freighter,” Sarah McLaren, head of widebody and freighter marketing said.
Airbus began designing the A350 freighter last decade, basing it on the successful A350-1000 passenger aircraft. The freighter is intended to be Airbus’s first production aircraft capable of challenging Boeing’s dominance in the cargo market.
What we know
Airbus completed the first test flight of its A350 widebody freighter on Tuesday.
The test flight reached an altitude of 25,000 feet and lasted four hours and 10 minutes.
The freighter has a payload capacity of 111 metric tons.
Airbus has received 103 orders from 14 customers for the A350 freighter.
The first commercial delivery of the A350 freighter is anticipated in late 2027.