First A330-800 Flies

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Image: Airbus

The new Airbus A330-800 widebody passenger jet successfully completed its first flight on Tuesday. Test pilots Malcolm Ridley and Franois Barre were at the controls for the trip, which lasted for a little over four hours. Airbus expects to conduct about 300 hours of flight testing on the A330-800 and hopes to receive type certification for the aircraft in 2019.

The A330-800 is the second member of the A330neo family, with a range of 8,150 NM and seats for 257 passengers. The 800 series is, for the most part, a smaller version of the first A330neo, the 287-seat A330-900. “The A330-800 and A330-900 have more than 99% commonality across the two A330neo versions, and they share the same type rating with the other members of Airbus’ A330 Family,” said Airbus. “Additionally, the two A330neo aircraft have a common type rating with the A350 XWB, facilitating pilots’ transition among these widebody Airbus aircraft for maximum efficiency.”

According to Airbus, fuel consumption for the A330neo family, which is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 turbofan engines, is 25 percent lower than previous generation aircraft. The A330-900 received type certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in September 2018.

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