The first U.S.-produced aircraft by European aircraft maker Airbus has taken its maiden flight from Mobile, Alabama Monday and landed safely after a 3.5-hour flight.
The A321 jetliner, due to be delivered to JetBlue Airways Corp. in the early second quarter, took off from the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley at 9:36 in the morning. It performed its test sequences and then landed at 1:02 pm.
“We’ve come to an exciting milestone in the production of any aircraft, but this one is particularly special,” says Daryl Taylor, the Airbus U.S. facility’s vice-president and general manager. “We’re creating a new center of commercial aircraft production in the U.S. This is just the first of many aircraft to come.”
After this test flight, the A321 will undergo a couple more weeks of final production before being sent to JetBlue. The second A321 will be sent to American Airlines soon afterwards.
Local officials and Airbus execs greeted the six-person flight crew, while over 300 employees in the facility saw the takeoff.
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, County Commission President Jerry Carl, and several other speakers appeared to allude to a number of bumps along the way, including years earlier when, under the consortium EADS, Airbus sought to producer tankers for the U.S. Air Force in the city. While it won the contract, it lost the deal to Boeing.
“It’s fair to say [the dream] turned into a nightmare for a little while, during the tanker program,” says Mobile Airport Authority Executive Director Roger Wehner.
The European aerospace company expects A321s to make up 49 of the first 50 A320-family jetliners to be delivered from the Mobile facility. It is also poised to transition to making A320neo-family jets at Mobile by the end of 2017 or at the start of the following year.
Airbus has poured in some $600 million at the Mobile plant, which is where an air force base used to sit before closing in the 1960s. The facility boasts of a more than 9,600-foot runway as well as an advantageous location next to Mobile Bay, where ships can unload massive aircraft parts and assemblies that can journey by road to Brookley.
The site is also next to a parcel of land about the same size, which the company could use for future expansion.
