A320neo

Four A320neo test aircraft will be built – two for each engine option – and Bour-Schaeffer says: “We’ve chosen to certify all engine tests on the A320.”

One aircraft in each pair will have heavy instrumentation and conduct handling and hot-and-high performance tests. The second will be lighter – used for testing autopilot, noise, and extended operations – and be “more representative” to customers with “no intrusive instruments”, Bour-Schaeffer adds.

Each of the two derivative airframes, the A319neo and A321neo, will have only two test aircraft, one for each engine. While several test results can simply be “read across” from the A320neo to the A319neo, owing to their identical wings, tests such as noise assessment have to be repeated for the A321neo. The A321neo will have to undergo a surface-water test, rather than rely on modelling.