Okay. I had this long posting praising how beautiful, advanced, tremendously big, huge and functional the new Airbus A380 is. But that was yesterday. Due to some technical issues this story is gone. And since I really loved the airplane (safer than love from first sight) I still want to share what I learned during my small research on the topic. Actually the posting was provoked by the fact that in a month or two Singapore Airlines will start their regular commercial flights with A380. I have seen pictures, and they look soooo lovely. Now I’ll try to gather together my thoughts for a fast A380 tour.
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First curious thing is that actually this airplane is not that new. The initial research started back in 1991. To me that sounded like a funny old school joke, like, come on, that was like 15 years ago. Yes, believe it or not, it seems that developing an airplane is not as easy as developing a pizza recipe.
So, Airbus started the development of a big machine to replace the famous Boeing 747. And here come the second almost unbelievable news: the original design of 747 actually dates back to the 70’s. However, the aircraft industry is quite resource consuming so for a while in this early development stage Airbus, Boeing and another few manufacturers teamed up and were working together on this project. But there was room for only one THAT big airplane on the market and Airbus took advantage. They developed a few models with capacity of 600 to 850 seats, depending on the class (economy/ business/ first). I have been to villages with less population than the people on board of this one! During the engineering works Airbus actively communicated with the airports around the world. For example there were future standards of 80 by 80 meter “box”, as few airports can accept aircraft of more than 80 meter in span or in length. In addition at that time only a few airports had runways and taxiways for such a machine. The interior was designed with an eye to detail and comfort. The three levels were developed in favor of functional perfection. Environmental issues were taken into consideration too with A380 being the greener airplane on the market ever. It is even certified to international environmental standards ISO 14001! In 2005 and 2006 some final tests were performed and today, here are we, waiting in line to get on board. Singapore Airlines will have their first flight this October 27th while the American passengers using carriers of ILFC should wait until 2013. Another curious fact is that Roman Abramovich, famous Russian billionaire, is the first private client and private owner of A380. His airplane will be ready in 2011. Enjoy A380 here: Or increase your paper work with these ultimately cool A380 cut-outs from the official downloads section: |
