New Airbus A350 maiden flight today...
 

....the carbon fibre plane takes to the skies today, many British components on board...

A day to be proud of our British contribution or not?

I hope that it makes us proud..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22901267

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22887601

and then there is this..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21650779

I'll keep an eye on http://www.flightradar24.com/ to see where it goes.

The Boeng Dreamliner was performing take off and landing at Newquay Airport last week. There were a lot of photographers down there trying to get a glimpse.

Here it is.. LIVE

http://www.airbus.com/newsevents/a350-xwb-first-flight/

So we did the wings, the undercarriage and the engines.

The French put it together and did the electronics. Oh dear :D

(anyone ever owned a French car that didn't have electrical faults lol)

Looking good, far prettier than the B-787 imo

A perfect touchdown!
English pilot, what else would we expect :)

It's a lot bigger than it looks, it's a monster!

Someone asked one of the Airbus team why the cab windows were black, his answer? "Because it looks cool" :cool:

I was in Newquay last week and I thought I saw the Dreamliner take off a few times, was it in the Thompson livery??? or was that another plane?

Thomas Cook certainly had dreamliners due for delivery earlier this year....

Absolutely a day to be proud. Great British (and European) engineering. Let's hope European carriers buy them in numbers.

A nice Noddy article about the science behind the A350's engines

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22889969

The wing design is said to be highly advanced in order to save a lot of fuel.

Les

I like this because the wings are made 15 mins away from here and I often see the Beluga flying over (looking like its about to fall out of the sky!)

A look at the pride in the workforce at broughton..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22908822

Not forgetting Rolls-Royce in Derby.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22904823

I like this because my son works for Airbus. :cool:

That's the one.

One for the aviation experts to answer I think but why do the Military Cargo Planes still use Prop engines instead of jet engines?

It's a good looking beast.

Stupid question coming up.......

Has it got different size wings ? The N/S looking longer and wider than the O/S ?

In a ducted fan-jet engine such as those used on airliners, the fan turns at the same speed as the power turbine, the thrust produced is a function of the engine speed. A turboprop, on the other hand, allows the engine speed to be maintained at high speed while the props can be trimmed (adjusted) to match the aircraft speed. A major advantage is during takeoff and landing from short runways. The engine can be revved up to near maximum rpm while the prop remains neutrally trimmed. Then, upon releasing the brakes, maximum thrust can be immediately applied.
On landing, the same applies. the plane can make a final approach with the engines revved up and trimmed, but can produce maximum thrust if the landing is aborted.
Also, a prop and a straight wing can be more manoeuverable than any jet/wing combination.

There is no such thing as a stupid question, (but there can be stupid answers). If questions don't get asked then you don't learn.

It's the perspective in the photography that gives the effect of one wing being shorter than the other, the wings are the same length.

http://www.airbus.com/aircraftfamili...pecifications/

If it had one wing shorter than the other, it would only be able to fly in circles ;)

Tell that to Burt Rutan, he's the designer that makes impossible looking planes fly..

http://www.diseno-art.com/news_conte...202-boomerang/

he also designed a plane that flew no-stop around the world..

The curling up wingtips are interesting. Modern aircraft have the wingtips bent vertically upwards in order to reduce the vortices which form at the wingtips where the higher air pressure from below the wings combines with the lower air pressure on top of the wing. This is the easiest spot for those vortices to form and they cause a significant increase in aerodynamic drag. The vertical wingtips go a long way to reducing the strength of the vortices.

The curly design on the A350 is interesting and whether it is more effective than the straight tips I cannot say. Maybe it is a stronger mechanical design.

The reduction in vortices can make a surprising difference in the fuel consumption of the aircraft.

Les

Bohlm & Voss got their a little bit before him though with the BV-141 ;)

http://www.wwiiaircraftphotos.com/LCBW9/BV141-8f.jpg

Thanks for the explanation about the prop engines, I had a feeling it may have been something to do with the short take off & landing ability but didn't know exactly what, now I do :)

Additionally, military transport aircraft tend to spend a lot of their time at lower airspeeds and lower altitudes than airliners, both of these are areas where the turboprop will typically outperform a jet engine of similar output levels. Which is one of the reasons the C130 is still the transport of choice nearly 60 years after it was first flown :thumb:

Great vid clip BTW Oldun :thumb: