European airliner manufacturer Airbus’ latest design, the A350 XWB, completed a short period of flight tests in South Africa on Monday and departed for Australia on the next leg of it current trials programme. The aircraft involved, MSN005, is demonstrating the new type’s readiness to undertake scheduled airline operations. This is the final set of tests necessary for the A350 XWB to receive its Type Certification, which is expected to happen next month.

The aircraft arrived at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport on Saturday. After landing, it was directed to its parking stand by a woman Marshall Official of the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), in recognition of Women’s Month.

During its time in South Africa, MSN005 carried out a number of high altitude airfield instrumented approaches and auto-landings. OR Tambo is situated 1 694 m above sea level and can also experience relatively high temperatures.

“We are pleased to be selected as the first airport on the continent to host the latest addition to the Airbus family,” said Acsa CEO Bongani Maseko. “The decision by Airbus to run test flights of their new jetliner at our facilities is testimony to the confidence the company has shown in our infrastructure and our capability as an airport management authority. Such flights are used to test compatibility of the aircraft with existing airport and air traffic management infrastructure, systems and processes.”

The visit of MSN005 to OR Tambo International Airport was part of the A350 XWB world tour, which started on July 24. This involves four separate missions, incorporating 14 airports across different continents and countries. The world tour is scheduled to be completed on August 13.

There are five flight test and development A350 XWBs, including MSN005, all belonging to the launch version of the family, the A350-900. In a typical two-class layout, an A350-900 will be able to carry 315 passengers. The other two members of the family will be the larger A350-1000 (369 passengers) and the smaller A350-800 (276 passengers).

The A350 XWB is a new generation airliner family, manufactured mainly from composites. These account for 53% (by weight) of the aircraft. One of the companies manufacturing components for the new airliner is South Africa’s Aerosud.

Aerosud supplies critically important parts for the A350 XWB – the frame clips for the centre fuselage of the aircraft and the track cans for the wings. The frame clips are class 1 structural composite parts and secure the fuselage skin panels to the fuselage structural framework. The track cans – there are several on each wing – house the drive mechanisms for the leading edge slats, which are a movable part of the wing.