Airbus | P. Pigyere | Master Films

Commercial aircraft giant Airbus has come up with a way to mature its aircraft faster. The French manufacturer has created its own simulated airline to replicate the way the world’s commercial carriers use and look after their airplanes. Dubbed AIRLINE1, the concept was introduced in 2013 to speed development of Airbus’ new A350 XWB (a Boeing 787/777 competitor) by reducing the technical issues that typically surface after new airliners enter service.

In essence, AIRLINE1 is a new way of developing of Airbus airliners—a system that allows the flight test team to think and operate as an airline would during flight testing and certification. An airline maintenance control center in a dedicated hangar at Airbus’ Flight Test Center in Toulouse, France is its main component. As the A350 flight test program unfolds, the company’s test team does real-time maintenance, support and repair operations on test aircraft using the procedures and even the documentation Airbus customer airlines use.