The world's largest commercial airliner, the 555-seat A380, successfully completed crosswind tests in extreme wind conditions at Keflavik Airport in Iceland, on Friday 10th November. A minimum of 23 knots (42 km/h) crosswind must be demonstrated at take off and landing for its Type Certification that is expected in mid-December. MSN004, one of the five developmental A380 aircraft, carried out a series of six landings and five take-offs with crosswinds above 40 knots (74 km/h), gusting up to 56 knots (104 km/h), which is considerably higher than the value required for Type Certification. During the tests, the A380 was put through its paces, and it showed that it will be able to operate easily with very strong crosswinds during normal operations. This is the first time an Airbus aircraft has performed tests in such crosswind conditions. During this series of tests, three test pilots flew the A380 developmental aircraft MSN004, Claude Lelaie, Senior Vice President of Airbus' Fligh
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