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The first A380 Airbus aircraft powered by Engine Alliance engines took off from Blagnac International Airport in Toulouse, France on its maiden
flight on Friday August 25th at 10:00 am (08:00 GMT).
The A380 MSN9 with registration number F-WWEA, is powered by four Engine Alliance GP7200 engines, which have the capability of delivering a
thrust up to 81,500 pounds (37 tonnes) each. The aircraft is equipped with heavy flight test instrumentation and ballast to produce a take off weight
of 430 tonnes.
Captaining the flight
was Guy Magrin, Experimental Test Pilot, flying with Franck Chapman, Experimental Test Pilot. The other crew members
were Test Flight Engineer, Bruno Bigand and Flight Test Engineers, Patrick du Ché and Jean-Philippe
Cottet.
MSN9
is the fifth and last developmental aircraft to join the fleet of test aircraft. So far with the other four test aircraft, which are powered by
Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines, over 1,800 flying hours have been accumulated in over 575 flights.
Six A380 customers have selected the Engine Alliance GP7200 engine for a total of 82 firm aircraft orders. These
include: Air France, Emirates Airlines, FedEx, ILFC and Korean Air and UPS.
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other recent news regarding:
Airlines,
Airbus,
A380
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