Success for the first flight of the A380 powered by Engine Alliance’s
engines

The first flight of the Engine Alliance GP7200 powered A380s marks
another milestone for the programme.

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 GP7200 engine will produce a 70,000 lbs (311 kilo Newton) power
thrust on the A380 passenger version, against a 76,500 lbs (340kN)
power thrust on the A380 freighter.

The aircraft is equipped with heavy flight test instrumentation and
ballast to produce a take off weight of 430 tonnes.

Captaining the flight is Guy Magrin, Experimental Test Pilot, flying
with Franck Chapman, Experimental Test Pilot. The other crew members
are Test Flight Engineer, Bruno Bigand and Flight Test Engineers,
Patrick du Ché and Jean-Philippe Cottet.

MSN9 becomes 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.

It was under a pouring rain that the A380 MSN9 with registration
number F-WWEA, powered by four Engine Alliance GP7200 engines landed
at Toulouse-Blagnac airport at 14:10 (12:10 pm GMT) after a successful
maiden flight lasting 4 hours and 10 minutes.

As the A380 taxied to its parking space, a happy crew waved to
spectators from the cockpit before stepping down from the aircraft to
be welcomed by Airbus COO and head of A380 programme Charles Champion,
by their families, by Airbus employees and by journalists.

Experimental test pilot Guy Magrin who captained the flight said:
“After testing the new engines for more than four hours during which
we realised nearly the entire test programme as planned, except for a
few items due to the bad weather conditions, I can say that the
combination of the A380 and the Engine Alliance is a success.”

He stated that, for pilots, the differences between the different
engines were extremely minor and the general behaviour of this
aircraft was identical to that of the Roll-Royce equipped A380.
"Airline pilots will have no trouble changing from one version to the
other," he said.

During the flight around South West France, the crew tested the
engines and all related systems including thrust and fuel consumption.
“For a first flight, I am amazed by the quality of the engines,” said
Guy Magrin.

“People will be happy to fly this aircraft, happy to fly in it as
passengers and it is also good for people living around airports
because it is a very quiet aircraft,” he concluded.

Six A380 customers have selected the Engine Alliance GP7200 engine for
a total of 82 firm aircraft orders. These include, in alphabetical
order: Air France, Emirates Airlines, FedEx, ILFC and Korean Air and UPS.

Designed to operate out of any airport where today’s largest aircraft
can, using shorter runways and generating half the noise, the A380
complies with some of the world’s strictest noise restrictions (QC1
for landing and QC2 for take off at London’s Heathrow), reinforcing
the A380’s growing recognition as the quietest large aircraft in the
world.

The A380 airframe and engines are the world’s most advanced using the
latest generation materials and systems to significantly reduce weight
and boost performance and economy. The A380 also boasts the world’s
most advanced cockpit and avionics providing its customers with the
unique benefits of Airbus’ operational commonality between fly-by-wire
models.