Airbus A321neo makes first flight

Toulouse, France – The first Airbus A321neo equipped with CFM International LEAP-1A engines completed its maiden flight on Feb. 9, 2016, from Hamburg, Germany. The aircraft, registration D-AVXB, was flown by Experimental Test Pilots Martin Scheuermann and Bernardo Saez Benito Hernandez. Accompanying them in the cockpit was Test-Flight Engineer Gérard Leskerpit and monitoring the flight’s progress were Flight-Test Engineers Sandra Bour Schaeffer and Emiliano Requena Esteban.

 

The flight lasted five hours and 29 minutes during which tests were performed on the engine speed variation (low/high), systems behavior, and to validate the aircraft’s flight envelope. The A321neo will join the NEO flight test fleet and perform a partial flight test program to validate the impact on handling qualities, performance, and systems. The first A321neo will be delivered at the end of 2016.

 

The A321neo is the largest member of the A320neo family. The A320neo flight test campaign has accumulated some 1,900 flight hours in more than 640 flights since the first flight on Sept. 25, 2014.