European Aircraft Industry: Airbus rolls out first passenger-ready A350 XWB - by Daniel McCoy

The new Airbus A350 XWB

Airbus this week unveiled the third A350 XWB test aircraft, the first to be equipped with a full passenger cabin interior.

The company said in a press release that the aircraft will begin flying in the coming weeks and will be the first A350 XWB to carry passengers when it begins the early-long-flights phase of the testing program.

The jet also features a special “carbon” paint job, meant to denote the use of the carbon composites that make up 53 percent of the plane’s airframe.

The new passenger jet is scheduled to enter service in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The A350 XWB has helped drive work in Wichita. Airbus Americas Engineering in Old Town has about 150 people working on the program.

And Wichita’s largest employer, Spirit AeroSystems Inc. designs and builds the aircraft’s center fuselage section and composite wing spar at its plant in Kinston, N.C.

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