Airbus A350 made from material composite material
The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus.
The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the Airbus A330 with composite wings and new engines.
As market support was inadequate, in 2006, Airbus switched to a clean-sheet "XWB" (eXtra Wide Body) design, powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB turbofan engines. The prototype first flew on 14 June 2013 from Toulouse, France. Type certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) was obtained in September 2014, followed by certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) two months later.
The A350 is the first Airbus aircraft largely made of carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers.
It has a new fuselage designed around a nine-abreast economy cross-section, up from the eight-abreast A330/A340. It has a common type rating with the A330.
The airliner has two variants: the A350-900 typically carries 300 to 350 passengers over a 15,000-kilometre (8,100-nautical-mile) range, and has a 283-tonne (617,300-pound) maximum takeoff weight (MTOW); the longer A350-1000 accommodates 350 to 410 passengers and has a maximum range of 16,100 km (8,700 nmi) and a 319 t (703,200 lb) MTOW.
On 15 January 2015, the initial A350-900 entered service with Qatar Airways, followed by the A350-1000 on 24 February 2018 with the same launch customer.
As of April 2023, Singapore Airlines is the largest operator with 62 A350-900 aircraft in its fleet.
A350 orders stood at 967 aircraft, of which 530 had been delivered and all were in service with 40 operators. The global A350 fleet had completed more than 1,025,000 flights on more than 1000 routes without accidents.
It succeeds the A340 and competes against Boeing's large long-haul twinjets: the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Boeing 777, and its successor, the 777X.Design
Airbus expected 10% lower airframe maintenance compared with the original A350 design and 14% lower empty seat weight than the Boeing 777. Design freeze for the A350-900 was achieved in December 2008.
The airframe is made out of 53% composites: CFRP for the empennage (vertical and horizontal tailplanes), the wing (centre and outer box; including covers, stringers, and spars), and fuselage (keel beam, rear fuselage, skin, and frame); 19% aluminium and aluminium–lithium alloy for ribs, floor beams, and gear bays; 14% titanium for landing gears, pylons, and attachments; 6% steel; and 8% miscellaneous. The A350's competitor, the Boeing 787, is 50% composites, 20% aluminium, 15% titanium, 10% steel, and 5% other.
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