Airbus A330-800 First Flight In Pictures

MSN1888 took off from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport close to schedule at 10:31 a.m. local time in cloudy but dry weather.

Experimental test pilots Malcolm Ridley (left) and Francois Barre (center, cockpit) flew MSN1888’s first flight along with flight-test engineer Ludovic Girardshown (foreground). The crew also included flight-test engineers Catherine Schneider and Jose Corugedo Bermejo. 

The aircraft, like other Airbus models on their first flights, stayed in a dedicated airspace freed up for it in the Toulouse region. The Pyrenees are visible in the background. The aircraft has all flaps retracted and the gear is up. 

MSN1888 rolled into the paint hangar in February. Entry into service of the larger A330-900 was delayed by around one year because Rolls-Royce fell behind on deliveries of its Trent 7000 engines. The A330-800 has a different problem . . .

. . . as of early November there were no firm orders for the model. Kuwait Airways signed a preliminary agreement for eight of the aircraft in October, but Airbus suffered a painful defeat earlier this year when former customer Hawaiian Airlines opted for the Boeing 787.

The original A330-300 flew for the first time on Nov. 2, 1992, 26 years ago. Airbus sold 787 A330-300s and 662 of the smaller -200s.