Airbus joins the big dogs!

Launched in 2021, and started to take shape in the Toulouse FAL in 2025. The A350F subsequently took to the skies on September 29, 2026.

The very moment of take off!!

This is Airbus’s first foray into the large freighter market, The airframe is based on the A350-1000 with the designation of A350-1041F but in actual fact is somewhere in between the 900 and the 1000 in length as five frames forward of the wing have been removed to ensure the aircraft is optimised for its new type of payload. Doors 2-4 and of course all the windows have been removed.

Added in is a segregated fresh air crew/courier area, large enough to accommodate ten business class seats and galley.

Fight test crew after landing.

The registration is an inkling to this aircrafts big draw as F-WXLD is for is its extra large door. A door so large that it will take all large modern aero engines through it. It has a watertight floor with heated drainage so the deck can be thoroughly washed.

There are eight different zones which can be individually controlled making it very adaptable for temperature sensitive products.

This latter point may well be the biggest challenge the programme has to face as it needs to squeeze in a 400 hour flight test campaign into nine months to achieve this. A second test aircraft is currently in production to assist with this.

After four hours and ten minutes the airraft made a flyby and then subsequent landing to the cheers from the assembled staff, guests and media.

Once on the ground the aircraft taxied to meet the waiting throngs, whereupon the crew came out to meet everyone and then an emotional reunion with family members.

Quick facts

• 115 orders from 14 disclosed customers

• 111tonne payload

• 4,700nm range

• 35tonne lighter operational weight empty - 46 tonne lighter Max Take-Off weight

• First Flight 29 September 2026

• Deliveries to (unannounced) launch customer by the end of 2027