Cathay Pacific's Airbus A350-1000 at the delivery centre in Toulouse. Photo / Grant Bradley
Airbus took off from where Concorde couldn't.
While the supersonic plane ultimately became a historic curio, most Airbus machines have been flying out the door.
The latest delivery, a sparkling new A350-1000 with just 10 hours or so flying time on the clock, was handed over to Cathay Pacific this week.
It is the latest model widebody plane from Airbus, which has orders for 850 of them and the smaller 900 series. Already, 174 of the planes have been delivered to 17 operators.
Concorde, a French-British project, ran out of customers when the United States stopped them landing in its east coast cities in the early 1970s.
The hangar where the supersonic plane had been built was in Toulouse and looking for work. Airbus, a European consortium, had just launched the A300, a comparatively utilitarian widebody plane to challenge US aircraft makers.
And La Ville Rose - The Pink City, named for its wide use of the region's clay bricks - in the south of France was the ideal location for the fledgling aircraft builder, with an uncrowded airport and access to river transport for parts from around Europe.
Concorde never recovered its early momentum, even after the US rescinded the ban. It was finally retired in 2003 as demand plunged following the 9/11 terror attacks. The programme was also rocked by a crash near Paris in 2000 which killed all 109 on board.
Only 20 of the planes aimed at the super-rich were built, but Airbus grew rapidly.
It was early to recognise the potential of the Asian market and its widebody planes evolved into the largest commercial aircraft flying, the A380, which is not a super hit, and its wildly popular single aisle A320.
It has become a global giant with 55,000 staff worldwide, about half of them in Toulouse.
Airbus' overall backlog of jetliners remaining to be delivered stands at more than 7100 aircraft - about nine years' production at current rates.
The latest big plane to roll off the assembly line at Toulouse is the A350-1000, capable of carrying 360 passengers up to 14,800km.
Cathay Pacific picked up the first of 20 they have on order and there's a fair helping of after-sales schmooze laid on by Airbus when selling a machine with a half-billion-dollar sticker price (although airlines get steep discounts and don't pay anything like those list rates). Qatar is the only other operator of the A350-1000, starting services this year.
On the day before the delivery flight, airline executives, guests and media from around the world were treated to a lavish banquet in one of city's museum and function centres, in a former abattoir on the banks of the Garonne River.
On the Airbus campus itself there's Le Club, not your standard work canteen but a restaurant that carries a Michelin star and served a four-course lunch to break up a round of presentations and fuel the media group of about 30 before they toured the vast assembly plants.
The 11-year-old Henri Ziegler Delivery Centre near the assembly buildings is also a style statement and the brief ceremony to mark Cathay taking possession of the plane came with a dramatic reveal. The aim is to get airlines to come back for more.
The delivery flight is a cross between a private service but with scheduled flight security rules. French security screens passengers before boarding and there's a mini immigration control to stamp passports on the way out.
Flight CX3510 had about 70 passengers - airline executives, staff from around the world who had won a draw to be there and media from Cathay destinations.
Because of the light load, some passengers had to be prepared to move from the front of the plane (where the sensible folk at Cathay had concentrated them) to sit further back to balance weight for takeoff. Although the aircraft had been thoroughly tested before being paid for, technicians were on board for the ferry flight to check systems.
Captain Evan Summerfield was in command of the ferry flight and said the new plane - which has an extended fuselage 7m longer than the earlier model - handles like a big aircraft such as Boeing 747 jumbo.
Pilots closely monitored fuel burn by the twin Rolls-Royce engines - the most powerful built for Airbus, generating up to 97,000 pounds of thrust.
The 11 hour 49min flight went over the French Alps to Poland, a right turn to Russia and down over Mongolia and the rest of China before descending over the Pearl River Delta and into Hong Kong.
Cathay has bought 99 Airbus planes. As its latest, the A350-1000, took off from Blagnac Airport on the delivery flight back to Hong Kong, it flew over a Concorde which still has a place in Toulouse - an Air France aircraft is at the Airbus museum.
Building an A350 is a pan-European project.
Wings from Wales, tail sections from Germany, fuselage sections from other parts of France are shipped or flown to Toulouse to be bolted, riveted and glued together.
The L-shaped A350 final assembly line covers an area equivalent to more than 10 rugby fields.
The A350 XWB sections arrive at the final assembly line from the various Airbus sites in Europe already fitted out - including the cockpit - and tested, reducing the amount of work required on the systems on the line.
The big cabin items such as galleys, crew rest compartments and toilets, are first installed inside each of the three fuselage sections before final aircraft assembly begins.
That final assembly starts with joining the forward, centre and aft fuselage sections. Just over 50 per cent of the A350 is carbon composite in places.
The nose landing gear is also installed at this station, and without wings the plane is dubbed ''le cigar".
During the next step, the aircraft has the big carbon fibre wings joined to the fuselage junction, tailplane (horizontal and vertical fins) and tailcone, and the main landing gear and engine pylons.
The first phase of cabin fitting is also carried out at this station when the floor, sidewalls, overhead bins and ceiling panels are installed.
Next comes ground testing of mechanical, electrical and avionics systems, the first aircraft power-on, cabin furnishing and final structural components (belly fairing, landing gear doors).
The aircraft is then moved to another station where external tests are performed (cabin pressurisation, communication systems, calibration and testing of the fuel gauges, adjustment of all cargo and passenger doors).
The next step consists of cabin furnishing completion (in-flight entertainment, curtains, safety equipment, special seats such as mini suites, trim and finish), as well as cockpit furnishing and engine installation.
The last step before the aircraft is transferred to the flight line consists of painting. The paint operators use spray guns with an electrostatic system that spreads paint more evenly so less is used, to save weight.
Then come test flights and the customer acceptance process.
• Grant Bradley travelled to Toulouse courtesy of Cathay Pacific and Airbus
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