2018 Airbus A350-1000: Specs, Photos & Videos

The 2018 Airbus A350-1000 marked the arrival in airline service of the longer member of Airbus’s A350 passenger family. It combined a stretched fuselage with more powerful engines and distinctive six-wheel main landing gear. Qatar Airways became the launch operator, introducing the aircraft with its Qsuite business-class cabin.

Its story begins before 2018, however. A first flight in 2016 and certification in 2017 preceded the first delivery. This guide explains those milestones, the aircraft’s proportions and its relationship to the A350-900. It also includes ten credited photographs and three videos covering flight testing, manufacturing and delivery.

Airbus A350-1000: the launch timeline

Development and airline introduction milestones
24 November 2016	A350-1000 maiden flight from Toulouse-Blagnac
November 2017	European and US type-certification milestone
Early 2018	Demonstration tour through the Middle East and Asia-Pacific
20 February 2018	First delivery to Qatar Airways in Toulouse

These events serve different purposes. A maiden flight begins airborne development; type certification establishes regulatory approval for the design; delivery transfers a completed aircraft to its customer. Consequently, the year in this article’s title refers to airline introduction rather than the first prototype flight.

The first flight: a new variant takes shape

Airbus’s first-flight report identifies MSN059 as the first A350-1000 development aircraft to fly. The flight lasted four hours and 18 minutes. Its crew explored handling and the flight envelope over south-western France, supported by a chase aircraft and ground specialists monitoring telemetry.

Three aircraft shared the development work. Tasks included performance, braking, systems, powerplant and cabin evaluation. The programme could draw on experience gained during the earlier A350-900 campaign, but the stretched variant still needed its own testing and certification evidence.

A350-1000 dimensions and key specifications

Reference dimensions and defining equipment
Overall length	73.78 m
Wingspan	64.75 m
Fuselage width	5.94 m
Maximum cabin width	5.71 m
Engines	Two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 turbofans
Main landing gear	Six wheels on each main gear assembly
First Qatar Airways configuration	327 seats, including Qsuite business class

Dimensions come from Airbus’s A350-1000 technical page. The 327-seat figure describes the first Qatar Airways aircraft, as documented in Airbus’s delivery coverage. Seat count is an airline configuration choice, not a single fixed number for every A350-1000.

How does it differ from the A350-900?

The clearest difference is length: the A350-1000 stretches the fuselage by approximately seven metres. Airbus’s 2017 certification account explains that this creates room for more passengers or larger premium cabin areas. At that time, Airbus illustrated the aircraft with a standard three-class layout of 366 seats.

The changes extend beyond adding fuselage sections. Higher-thrust Trent XWB-97 engines and enhanced six-wheel main landing gear support the larger variant. Nevertheless, Airbus reported 95% common system part numbers between the two passenger versions. Commonality helps explain why the aircraft form a family even though their external dimensions and some major components differ.

For a reader comparing photographs, the six-wheel main bogies are particularly useful. Count the wheels on each main assembly when the gear is visible, then check the aircraft’s registration and the source caption. Perspective alone can make fuselage length difficult to judge.

The 2018 demonstration tour

Before first delivery, Airbus sent cabin-equipped test aircraft MSN065 on a tour of the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. The manufacturer’s January 2018 announcement listed 12 destinations and more than 30,000 nautical miles of travel. Stops included Doha, Muscat, Singapore, Sydney, Auckland and Tokyo.

The demonstration aircraft had 40 business-class, 36 economy-plus and 219 comfort-economy seats. That layout served the tour’s demonstration role. It was not the same as Qatar Airways’ first delivered cabin, which shows why aircraft capacity needs a clearly identified source and configuration.

Qatar Airways and the first delivery

Qatar Airways received the first A350-1000 on 20 February 2018 in Toulouse. Airbus’s delivery feature describes the airline as operating both A350 passenger versions and highlights the new aircraft’s Qsuite installation. Its manufacturing film follows components through assembly to the finished aircraft in flight.

The launch matters because a new aircraft variant becomes more than a development programme when it enters an airline’s operation. Cabin product, maintenance planning, crew preparation and scheduling bring the manufacturer’s design into a passenger service. The delivery film below captures that transition without confusing it with the 2016 first flight.

Materials, cabin design and the long-haul role

The A350 family uses a high proportion of advanced materials. In its family overview, Airbus identifies carbon-fibre reinforced polymer as 53% of the airframe. Composites work alongside titanium and aluminium-lithium components within the wider design.

Airbus also describes the Airspace cabin through its lighting, space and air systems. These are design features of the aircraft platform; the seat, cabin class and onboard service still depend on the airline. A photograph of an exterior cannot establish which seat product a particular flight will offer.

Published range and seating figures can evolve as an aircraft family develops. This historical profile therefore avoids applying a later range target or a different airline’s seating layout to the first 2018 delivery.

What to notice in the photo gallery

Fuselage proportions: compare a broad side view with a closer nose or rear view.
Main landing gear: the detail photograph makes the six-wheel arrangement easy to see.
Wing shape: look at the swept wing and upward-curving tip from different angles.
Airline and test liveries: the gallery includes Qatar Airways aircraft and test aircraft F-WMIL.

Most photographs date from the 2018 introduction period. The F-WMIL flying-display image is explicitly identified as Paris Air Show 2019. It illustrates the aircraft type rather than the first delivery ceremony.

Explore more aviation history

Browse the Bin3aiah Planes aircraft archive for more profiles. For a much earlier chapter in aircraft development, explore our Blériot XI 1909 article.

Airbus A350-1000 photo gallery

Ten aircraft photographs, with individual source and licence links. Select an image to view the larger photograph. Images are resized proportionally. Featured photograph: F-WMIL at Paris Air Show 2019, New York-air, CC BY-SA 4.0.