Airbus has yet to fit the main-deck cargo door to its initial A350F test aircraft but is expecting to take delivery of the assembly early next year.

While much of the airframe for MSN700 – fuselage, wings, empennage and landing-gear – has been mated and rolled out, the cargo door is notably absent.

The main-deck ‘XL’ door is a key selling-point of the new twinjet, and Airbus claims that, at 4.3m (169in) width, it will be the largest on the market.

Speaking during a 25 November briefing, Airbus head of widebody programme development Guillaume Vuillermoz said the plan, “since the beginning”, was for the door to enter final assembly “later” than other structures.

“Giving the time to mature the design of the door was important,” he says.

Assembly of the door at the Spanish Illescas plant is underway, says Vuillermoz. He adds that it “will be available…for installation on the aircraft” at the beginning of 2026, “as planned in our programme”.

Ground-testing is “key for maturity achievement”, he says, and some 30 test rigs have been established to validate performance of different components.

These include a main-deck cargo door and fuselage rig in Bremen, a main-deck environmental control compartment and courier area in Hamburg, and a cargo-loading system test bench in Los Angeles.

The A350F’s backlog has increased to 74 firm orders following recent agreements from Air China Cargo, Etihad Airways and Korean Air.

Twelve customers have signed for the aircraft. Etihad, Starlux Cargo, and lessor AviLease are the largest customers, taking 10 each.

Viullermoz says the first flight of MSN700 – which will have the test registration F-WXFR – is intended to take place in the third quarter of 2026.

Airbus lead flight-test engineer Laurent Bussiere says the aircraft will carry “dedicated, new-generation” flight-test instrumentation, developed for the A350F, to support the campaign.

He says the flight-test campaign will last around nine months, involving around 400h of tests, with 300h undertaken by MSN700.

“What we’re looking for [with] this aircraft is mainly to focus on anemometric [data]…to look at the behaviour of the aircraft against the air,” says Bussiere.

MSN700 will be used to assess cruise performance and handling qualities, including flutter analysis, but also engage in system tests of the autopilot, autoland, and the ram-air turbine.

The second aircraft, MSN701 (F-WCGO), will carry out around 110h of tests, primarily validation of systems such as air-conditioning, and will participate in the hot- and cold-weather campaigns.

“Air conditioning is different, because it’s a freighter aircraft,” says Bussiere.

He adds that MSN701 will be used for smoke tests. “If you get a fire on the cargo area, you’re not reacting the same [way] on the cargo aircraft as the passenger aircraft.

“So there’s a complete new philosophy we’ll implement on this aircraft, and there is a huge test to be done to be sure that, at the end, we have a good level of safety.”

MSN701 will test low-visibility take-off capabilities and, crucially, will be recruited for customer demonstrations and checks to refine loading and unloading procedures.

“It’s important for us that this aircraft will be at a good level at entry into service,” says Bussiere. “And to be at a good level we need maturity for the product.”

Certification of the A350F is planned for the second quarter of 2027.