France: European Aircraft Industry: Airbus A350 zooming toward Paris Air Show flyover

the new Airbus A350 makes its first apearance

Airbus could be ready to fly its new A350 in mid-June, depending on weather and ground trials, giving pilots a narrow time window to test the plane's basic characteristics in flight before the June 17-23 Paris Air Show.

With just a few hours in the air, industry sources say it is unlikely that the first completed A350, rolled out of the Airbus paint shop only last week, would land at the show.

But if the first handful of flights go to plan, a 600-km (400-mile) trip to Le Bourget for a brief roar over its American rivals would ratchet up the PR war just as Boeing aims to recover from a three-month grounding of its 787 Dreamliner.

Airbus reiterated it plans to fly the A350 around the middle of the year and declined further comment on the plane's debut.

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