30 August 2006
FOUR A380S FLY IN FORMATION
A sight to remember as four of the five A380s perform a formation flight over the South of France
Four of the five A380 test aircraft flew in formation over Toulouse Blagnac airport on 30 August. The fleet included MSN9, the last of the test aircraft, which performed its first flight with Engine Alliance’s GP7200 engines on 25 August.
The aircraft, which were commanded by Airbus test pilots Frank Chapman, Claude Lelaie, Jacques Rosay and Lucien Benard, took off from Toulouse in clear, sunny conditions at 9am. The jets headed east towards the Mediterranean Sea, joined up in a diamond formation and flew back towards their starting point.
“We all had various tests to perform on each of the aircraft but as we were asked to fly a formation, we flew together for air-to-air photographs towards the Mediterranean, followed by a return and fly-by at Toulouse-Blagnac. We then separated to perform our individual test programmes,” explained Frank Chapman, captain of the lead aircraft MSN9.
Head of Airbus flight operations Claude Lelaie piloted MSN01, flying on the right of the formation; Jacques Rosay was at the controls of MSN02, on the left; and Lucien Benard flew behind in MSN04. The formation flight itself lasted around an hour and a half.
Formation flying is often a feature of Airbus’ test pilots’ work schedules. Of the A380, Frank said: “There are some differences in the way such a large aircraft is handled in formation, but essentially, the same standard formation flying principles apply".
