Toulouse-Blagnac

His instructors noted that he was a reserved, calm and cautious man who was reluctant to undertake a task before he fully understood what was involved.

This cautious approach to flying may have been related to the fact that he was slow to learn, something which his instructors had also pointed out, and which may have been responsible for, three years previously, his suspension from flying after he landed on a closed runway at Toulouse Airport.

Nonetheless, he'd been reinstated after additional training, and was considered to be up to speed by this point.

Sitting to his right was First Officer Joel Cherubin, aged 37.

And he stripped them naked.

And when eventually one of them could get a word in, they said to him, but Jock, that's the price of a cup of coffee at Toulouse Airport, five francs.

and that deflated him.

I mean, that is absolutely true.

Yeah, there's usually an answer.

And I tell you what, it is not to travel through Toulouse Airport, because it's not an airport that I particularly love flying through.

At Toulouse, we've got a couple of wonderful aviation companies, ATR and Airbus.

And this time I was there to visit Airbus.

Four hours and ten minutes over Toulouse.

The A350F departed Toulouse-Blagnac Airport at around 10.30 a.m., according to reports by AirData News and Aerotime.

Airbus had expected a flight lasting about four hours.

Once it was over, the company confirmed a duration of four hours and 10 minutes and a maximum altitude of 25,000 feet, approximately 7,620 meters.

The F derivative is a different airplane, though, with different weight distributions and different structural load paths, so the test team isn't assuming anything.

What you're likely to see on the livestream is departure from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in the south of France.

That's where Airbus's final assembly facility is, and it's where virtually every Airbus maiden flight has taken place going back decades.

The airplane will probably be in a distinctive test livery, likely unpainted or partially painted, with bright orange or red test markings, antennas and instrumentation ports visible on the fuselage that won't be there on production aircraft.

Um, people are not on holiday anymore in France, although people are on holiday from Britain to France.

To reach Collioure, the best thing is to fly into the Toulouse Airport.

Would you say that was the closest, or is there something closer in Spain?

Uh, there, there is...

So-

You don't get really big scheduled ones

... commercial aircraft would go into Toulouse Airport.

Yeah.