The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. The largest passenger airliner in the world, the A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines. The aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX during much of its development phase, but the nickname Superjumbo has since become associated with it.
The A380’s Seating capacity is 525 people in typical three-class configuration and 853 people in all economy class configuration making it largest in terms of floor space. It has 50% more floor space as compared to second largest plane Boeing 747-400. A380 has both passenger & freighter versions.
The A380-800F, the freighter model, is offered as one of the largest freight aircraft, with a listed payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225. The A380-800 has a design range of 15,200 km (8,200 nmi), sufficient to fly from Boston to Hong Kong for example, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude). It is the first commercial jet capable of using GTL-based fuel.
Major structural sections of the A380 are built in France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Due to their size, they are brought to the assembly hall in Toulouse in France by surface transportation, rather than by the A300-600ST Beluga aircraft used for other Airbus models. Components of the A380 are provided by suppliers from around the world; the five largest contributors by value are Rolls-Royce, SAFRAN, United Technologies, General Electric, and Goodrich.
The front and rear sections of the fuselage are loaded on an Airbus Roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ship, Ville de Bordeaux, in Hamburg in northern Germany, from where they are shipped to the United Kingdom. The wings, which are manufactured at Filton in Bristol and Broughton in North Wales, are transported by barge to Mostyn docks, where the ship adds them to its cargo. In Saint-Nazaire in western France, the ship trades the fuselage sections from Hamburg for larger, assembled sections, some of which include the nose. The ship unloads in Bordeaux. Afterwards, the ship picks up the belly and tail sections by Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA in Cádiz in southern Spain, and delivers them to Bordeaux. From there, the A380 parts are transported by barge to Langon, and by oversize road convoys to the assembly hall in Toulouse. New wider roads, canal systems and barges were developed to deliver the A380 parts. After assembly, the aircraft are flown to Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (XFW) to be furnished and painted. It takes 3,600 l (950 US gal) of paint to cover the 3,100 m2 (33,000 sq ft) exterior of an A380.
Airbus sized the production facilities and supply chain for a production rate of four A380s per month.
Engine
A Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine for A380
The Rolls-Royce Trent 900 is a derivative of the Trent 800, and the GP7000 has roots from the GE90 and PW4000. The Trent 900 core is a scaled version of the Trent 500, but incorporates the swept fan technology of the stillborn Trent 8104. The GP7200 has a GE90-derived core and PW4090-derived fan and low-pressure turbo-machinery. Only two of the four engines are fitted with thrust reversers.
Noise reduction was an important requirement in the A380's design, and particularly affects engine design. Both engine types allow the aircraft to achieve QC/2 departure and QC/0.5 arrival noise limits under the Quota Count system set by London Heathrow Airport, which is a key destination for the A380.
A380 Test Flight
A380 maiden test flight landing
Five A380s were built for testing and demonstration purposes. The first A380, serial number MSN001 and registration F-WWOW, was unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse on 18 January 2005. Its maiden flight took place at 8:29 UTC (10:29 a.m. local time) 27 April 2005. This plane, equipped with Trent 900 engines, flew from Toulouse Blagnac International Airport with a flight crew of six headed by chief test pilot Jacques Rosay. After successfully landing three hours and 54 minutes later, Rosay said flying the A380 had been “like handling a bicycle”.
On 1 December 2005, the A380 achieved its maximum design speed of Mach 0.96 (versus normal cruising speed of Mach 0.85), in a shallow dive, completing the opening of the flight envelope.
On 10 January 2006, the A380 made its first transatlantic flight to Medellín in Colombia, to test engine performance at a high altitude airport. It arrived in North America on 6 February, landing in Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada for cold-weather testing.
On 14 February 2006, during the destructive wing strength certification test on MSN5000, the test wing of the A380 failed at 145% of the limit load, short of the required 150% to meet the certification. Airbus announced modifications adding 30 kg to the wing to provide the required strength.
On 26 March 2006, the A380 underwent evacuation certification in Hamburg, Germany. With 8 of the 16 exits blocked, 853 passengers and 20 crew left the aircraft in 78 seconds, less than the 90 seconds required by certification standards.
Three days later, the A380 received European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to carry up to 853 passengers.
On 4 September 2006, the first full passenger-carrying flight test took place. The aircraft flew from Toulouse with 474 Airbus employees on board, in the first of a series of flights to test passenger facilities and comfort. In November 2006, a further series of route proving flights took place to demonstrate the aircraft's performance for 150 flight hours under typical airline operating conditions.
The first airline to operate the aircraft was Singapore Airlines.
The first aircraft delivered (MSN003, registered 9V-SKA) was handed over to Singapore Airlines on 15 October 2007 and entered into service on 25 October 2007 with an inaugural flight between Singapore and Sydney (flight number SQ380). Passengers bought seats in a charity online auction paying between $560 and $100,380. Two months later Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choong Seng said that the A380 was performing better than both the airline and Airbus had anticipated, burning 20% less fuel per passenger than the airline's existing 747-400 fleet. Emirates was the second airline to take delivery of the A380 on 28 July 2008 and started flights between Dubai and New York on 1 August 2008. Qantas followed on 19 September 2008, starting flights between Melbourne and Los Angeles on 20 October 2008. By the end of 2008, 890,000 passengers had flown on 2,200 A380 flights totaling 21,000 hours.
In February 2009 the millionth A380 passenger flying with Singapore Airlines was recorded.
In May 2009 it´s reported that A380 has carried 1,5 million passengers during 41 thousand flight hours and 4200 flights.
Specifications
| Measurement | A380-800 | A380-800F |
| Cockpit crew | Two | |
| Seating capacity | 525 (3-class) | 12 couriers |
| Length | 73 m (240 ft) | |
| Span | 79.8 m (262 ft) | |
| Height | 24.1 m (79 ft) | |
| Wheelbase | 30.4 m (100 ft) | |
| Outside fuselage width | 7.14 m (23.4 ft) | |
| Cabin width | 6.58 m (21.6 ft) for Main deck | |
| Wing area | 845 m2 (9,100 sq ft) | |
| Wing sweep | 33.5° | |
| Operating empty weight | 276,800 kg (610,000 lb) | 252,200 kg (556,000 lb) |
| Maximum take-off weight | 560,000 kg (1,200,000 lb) | 590,000 kg (1,300,000 lb) |
| Maximum payload | 90,800 kg (200,000 lb) | 152,400 kg (336,000 lb) |
| Cruise speed | Mach 0.85 | |
| Maximum cruise speed | Mach 0.89 | |
| Maximum speed | Mach 0.96 | |
| Take off run at MTOW | 2,750 m (9,000 ft) | 2,900 m (9,500 ft) |
| Range at design load | 15,200 km (8,200 nmi, 9,400 mi) | 10,400 km (5,600 nmi, 6,400 mi) |
| Service ceiling | 13,115 m (43,030 ft) | |
| Maximum fuel capacity | 310,000 l | 310,000 l |
| Engines (4 x) | GP7270 (A380-861) | GP7277 (A380-863F) |
| Thrust (4 x) | 311 kN (70,000 lbf) | |
As of April 2008, the list price of an A380 was US$ 317.2 to 337.5 million depending on equipment installed.
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