Both of these pictures were very kindly sent to me by M.Jacques Rosay, Airbus Chief Test Pilot and Vice President.
The first Airbus A380 took to the air at 8:29 GMT, landing back at Blagnac international airport in Toulouse, France at 12.23 GMT on April 27 2005, after successfully completing a first flight that lasted three hours and 54 minutes.
The A380's first flight was jointly captained by Claude Lelaie, Senior Vice President Flight Division, and by Chief Test pilot and Vice President Jacques Rosay. The other crew members were Fernando Alonso, Vice President Flight Division, Flight Test Engineering who led a team of two other flight test engineers, Jacky Joye and Manfred Birnfeld, and test flight engineer Gérard Desbois.
Carrying the registration F-WWOW, aircraft serial No 001 is the largest passenger aircraft in the world. It is powered by four Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines.
Claude Lelaie joined Airbus’ flight division as an engineering test pilot in charge of certification in 1988 and was appointed to his current position as senior vice president of the flight division in 1994. Since joining Airbus, he has been closely involved in the flight testing and development of new aircraft and performed the first flight of the A319 and A340-600. Overall, he has accumulated more than 14,000 flight hours on about 200 aircraft types, including some 7,500 hours of flight tests. His aviation experience also extends to having led an aerobatic flight team, Les Porthos, who performed flight displays in Europe and the US. Claude Lelaie was born in Chateauroux, France in 1946.
Jacques Rosay joined Airbus as a test pilot in 1995 and two years later became the project pilot for the A380, then known as the A3XX. In 2000 he was appointed vice president chief test pilot of Airbus’ flight test division. Prior to joining Airbus, he was chief test pilot at the French flight test centre in southern France, where he became project pilot for several military aircraft and tested almost 150 different models of military and civilian aircraft. He also worked as a certification test pilot for the Joint Aviation Authorities on various aircraft including Airbus’ A320, A321, A330 and A340 while also working part-time as a pilot for Air France. Jacques Rosay performed the maiden flights of the A318, A340-500 and the A380. He had10,000 flight hours to his credit, including 6,000 hours of flight tests. Jacques Rosay was born in 1949 in Valréas, France and died 12th June 2015.