The A350 made its maiden flight on the eve of the Paris Air Show 2013. In May, Onera’s team of specialists was on deck day and night to pass the vibration tests on the ground in record time. Airbus was thus reassured that the plane was ready for its first flight.
The vibration test campaign for the new A350XWB, plane n°1, conducted under the responsibility of ONERA in cooperation with the German Aerospace Center DLR, was completed successfully in late April.
The goals were very ambitious:
- Instrumentation performed in co-activity with the Airbus teams finishing the plane
- Vibration tests performed continuously for nine days within a time slot from 7:00AM to midnight; two teams of 9 people, continuously.
- Provision of almost real-time data analyses.
The DLR and ONERA teams took up the challenge in a "just-in-time" atmosphere. Their staff has received a congratulatory letter from Didier Evrard (A350 XWB program director) and from Gordon McConnell (Chief Engineer for the A350 XWB).
The database transferred to Airbus will be useful for the recalibration of structural models of the new aircraft. This is an essential stage in the certification process for the first flight of the A350XWB.
According to the schedule drawn up together with Airbus, a series of tests focused on the dynamics of the nose gear was carried out on plane No. 3, two weeks after the first campaign.
The instrumented A350 XWB MSN1, during vibration testing on the ground in Toulouse.
