Airbus has showed off its new A350 XWB, rolling out its first flyable plane on Monday fresh from the paintshop in company livery.
The aircraft is the first in a family of super efficient passenger planes Airbus designed to go head-to-head against rival Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and 777s.
"XWB" means "extra wide body." There are three members in the A350 family: the A350-800, the A350-900 and the A350-1000, which seat 270, 314 and 350 passengers respectively, in three-class seating.
The largest of the three lightweight carbon-composite aircraft, the A350-1000, is 73.88 meters long and has a range of approximately 8,400 nautical miles, or 15,600 kilometers. The catalog price is US$320.6 million. As of March 31, there were 110 orders for the A350-1000 among a total of 616 orders from 34 customers. Most orders, 414, have been for the A350-900.
The plane unveiled on Monday at Airbus HQ in Toulouse, France is the latest milestone in what has been a turbulent production history for the A350.
Critics have said the A350 program -- first launched in 2007 -- was a poorly-designed, hasty response to Boeing's 787.