Airbus has installed the industry’s largest main deck cargo door on its first A350F freighter at the Final Assembly Line in Toulouse, marking a key milestone ahead of imminent flight tests. The door, measuring 4.3 meters wide when open, arrived from the Illescas facility in Spain after completion of manufacturing and assembly.
This 15 percent wider opening compared to the Boeing 777 Freighter’s 3.7-meter door enables one-go loading of oversized cargo like high-bypass aero engines, slashing loading time from an hour to minutes. The rear-fuselage placement maintains a safe center of gravity as freight moves forward during operations.
Featuring an industry-first composite structure and fully electric actuation, the door aligns with the A350’s more-electric architecture, replacing traditional hydraulics for efficiency. Flight testing on this initial aircraft begins in the coming weeks and extends through 2027.
For serial production, doors will ship from Illescas to Hamburg for aft fuselage integration and system installation. The A350F’s 111-tonne payload and 4,700 nautical mile range position it to handle demanding freight routes with superior operational speed.