Airbus has unveiled the latest livery on its A321XLR prototype fleet, rolling out the paint scheme on its third flight-test airframe.
The twinjet – MSN11080, fitted with CFM International Leap-1A engines – carried out its maiden flight in October last year.
Airbus is using the aircraft primarily for maturity testing of the passenger cabin and the jet will carry out route-proving exercises.
The A321XLR is intended for long-range operations and this means the cabin needs adapting to ensure passenger comfort levels and noise are kept within acceptable tolerance limits.
MSN11080 will be used to validate operations and range capabilities at high take-off weights, under varying atmospheric and ground conditions.
Its livery includes a QR code which observers can scan for further information.
Airbus is using MSN11000 and MSN 11058 as XLR flight-test aircraft, and the airframer has also recruited a regular A321neo airframe – MSN6839 – to test some of the specific design features developed for the XLR.
