As paint jobs go giving a passenger jet a sleek new look is quite a task – but this video shows it can be done in just 90 SECONDS.
Ok, so it’s been a little speeded up but you can’t deny the ‘plastic plane’ – Europe’s polymer version of the jetlag-busting Dreamliner passenger jet – doesn’t look the part as it’s prepared to take to the skies for commercial flights.
The first Airbus A350-900 – which has Rolls-Royce engines made in Derby and wings manufactured at Broughton in North Wales and is built from 53% composite/polymer material – will be delivered to launch customer Qatar Airways on December 13 at the European consortium’s plant in Toulouse, France.
It features the same advanced technology as the rival Boeing 787 with super-quiet engines, better air quality, mood lighting, a more spacious cabin and bigger panoramic windows.
Greener credentials come from a 25% saving in fuel in the skies compared to a similar sized ‘standard’ jet and at the end of its service life up to 90% of its weight could be recycled and more than 70% of its components and materials reused or recovered.
Airbus has 778 firm A350 orders to 41 customers and Qatar – which is taking delivery of 80 of the £187million planes – has just had its livery sprayed on the jet at a Toulouse hangar before it is flown to Doha to go into service on the route from the Middle East city to Frankfurt, Germany.
