WATCH: Aboard the Airbus A350 XWB

One cool thing about flying in an Airbus A350 XWB is being able to see much of what goes on in the path of the plane and under it while it is taking off, flying and landing. Each passenger's seat has a touchscreen monitor that lets you see what cameras mounted outside the plane see.

 

Camera 1 is mounted on the top of the tail so you see what ahead of the jet. The plane's taxiing, take-off, and landing can be viewed using Camera 1. Camera 2 is under the belly of the aircraft and it enables the viewer to see the sea or ground passing under the plane while in flight.


 

 

GMA News Online discovered these and much more about the A350 XWB when it was one of the invited guests for the jet's first demo flight in the Philippines on Wednesday, May 20.

 

Also on the special flight that began and ended at Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport were top executives, as well as cabin crews, of Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines.

 

CebuPac and PAL on one flight aboard the A350 XWB, the newest and most advanced aircraft so far of Airbus.

 

Together in the business class section were Cebu Air Inc. president and chief operating officer Lance Y. Gokongwei at si PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime J. Bautista. Cebu Air Inc. operates Cebu Pacific.

 

Airbus executive vice president for Asia Jean-Francois Laval led the European aircraft maker's welcome for all the guests.

 

Aside from the airline executives, some government officials were there. Secretary to the Cabinet Jose Rene Almendras was the highest ranking from Malacañang.


 

 

Airbus officials said the plane for the demo flight is the A350-900 which has a passenger capacity of 325. The A350-800 seats 285 while the A350-1000 has a capacity of 366.

 

The flight guests were shuttled via bus to the new jet parked on a tarmac at NAIA Terminal 2. The trip took only moments.

 

Airbus' A350-900 is huge. Its Rolls Royce Trent XWB engines are massive. 
 

From nosetip to tailend, the jet is 66.80 meters long, nearly as long as a rugby field (around 67 meters).

 

Wingspan is 64.75 meters. The ends of the wings are curved and curled upwards.

 

Airbus said inspiration for the wings' design are birds. The wings "adapt during the flight, morphing while airborn, changing shape to reduce fuel burn."

 

Fuel volume capacity of the A350-900 is 141,000 liters. The A350-1000 carries more fuel at 156,000 liters.

 

Inside the aircraft

 

The PAL and Cebu Pacific cabin crew welcomed the passengers on board with their beaming smiles and statuesque bearing.

 

The demo flight aircraft has 42 seats in business class at 210 seats in economy.

 

All A350s that will be in commercial service are two-aisle and with three-class sections.

 

The jet is acronymed XWB because of its extra wide body. Airbus said that compared to the Boeing 787, their aircraft's interior is 6 inches wider wall to wall (221 inches).

 

In business class, passenger may lie flat if they wish to. Up to four passengers could be in one node in a “four abreast configuration”.

 

In economy, three passengers can be seated side by side. There are nine seats per row.

 

The economy section of the demo A350-900 had “special on-board flight test equipment” where two flight engineers monitor every electronic pulse of the plane and all that goes on in the cockpit and in the fuselage.

 

Scattered all over the plane were various sensors to monitor indicators relevant to the jet's technical workings and passenger comfort, flight engineer Philippe Foucault said in an interview with GMA News Online.

 

 

 

Flight safety reminders were shown the passengers using a pre-produced video. 

 

The captain's voice emanated from the overhead speakers a few minutes after the safety reminders video was over.

 

A short while later, Airbus EVP for Asia Jean-Francois Laval spoke. 

 

He said the A350 has high marks for fuel efficiency, low fuel emissions and operations savings.

 

Laval said the new jet is more fuel-efficient by 25 percent. 

 

The Airbus press kit further said that the comparison is with the Boeing 777.

 

Fuel efficiency is due mainly to the weight-efficient way the plane's frame was done as well as the  “advanced materials” the plane is made of:  “composites” (53 percent); titanium and “advanced aluminium alloys,” according to Airbus. 

 

Over 50 percent of the fuselage is made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic.

 

The flight lasted 90 minutes and landed after cruising over mainland Luzon.  — GMA News