First nose landing gear installed on A350XWB
15 Apr 2011
Airbus has said that the first nose landing gear was installed on the A350 XWB at its Filton test facility in the UK. The A350XWB is Airbus' competing offering to Boeing's futuristic 787 Dreamliner and other long-range variants.
The nose landing gear was produced by Liebherr Aerospace.
The main landing gear, supplied by Messier-Dowty, ''will be installed and preliminary testing of all three landing gear legs will start,'' said Airbus, noting that ''full integration testing will begin with the entry into service of the facility toward the end of 2011.''
According to Airbus, these tests will ''demonstrate reliability and maturity in addition to providing evidence for certification, especially with regards to the extension-retraction, braking and steering systems.''
The 270-350-seat A350 XWB is Airbus's new long-range wide-body twinjet designed to compete against Boeing's 777 as well as the larger 787 variants.
