On October 6th, 2005, Airbus held the "industrial launch" event for its new aircraft - the long-range A350 family, consisting of the -900 and -800. This new type was the company's answer to the Boeing 787. While it was designed to incorporate the latest technologies of the time, including composite wings and new engines, the aircraft originally looked startlingly similar to the A330.
The first A350 design - nothing like the final product Designing an aircraft and bringing it to market is a tremendous undertaking that consumes large amounts of time, energy, and financial resources. Throughout this lengthy process, numerous changes may be made to the original design before the aircraft is manufactured and delivered to airline customers. That is precisely what has happened between the original Airbus A350 and the production model we see flying today.
Indeed, the two jets look pretty different from one another. The Airbus A350, when it was first launched, looked incredibly similar to the A330, with: Sharp-edged, angular winglets A nose that had a nearly identical profile to the A330 A similar cockpit window arrangement to the A330, complete with that little notch on the top corner of the last window on each side. In case you haven't seen it yet, this video from the 2005 launch event gives us a good idea of just how much Airbus changed between the product launch and the production model: Indeed, it wasn't just a difference in appearance.
As noted in a presentation slide displayed .