The largest Airbus A350 XWB fuselage panel made from carbon fibre has been manufactured by Premium AEROTEC (Germany). Located on the forward right-hand side of the fuselage and measuring 93 square metres, the panel will undergo ultrasonic inspection, trimming and drilling in the coming days prior to being joined with the other panels that together will become the forward fuselage (Section 13-14).
Airbus opted for large fuselage panels for the A350 XWB design as they can be tailored in terms of their thickness according to the different loads required at each part of the airframe. This approach enables Airbus to optimise the airframe overall which results in enhanced performance, greater robustness and less weight.
The A350 XWB Family consists of three passenger versions – flying up to 8500nm/15,580km. In a typical three-class configuration, the A350-800 will offer 270 seats while the A350-900 and the A350-1000 will offer 314 and 350 seats respectively. All members of the family can be configured for higher density layouts, the -1000 for up to 440 seats.
The baseline model, the A350-900’s design was frozen in December 2008 and is progressing towards entry-into-service in the second half of 2013.
Source: EADS