Airbus A380

History of the Airbus A380

As a direct competitor to the highly successful Boeing 747 product line, Airbus launched its wide-body, long-range jet airline A380 family on 25 October 2007 (before June 1994), project name as "A3XX". The program was followed by various design studies before it was officially approved by the company in December 2000, and the aircraft is now officially designated "A380".

The design was refined in 2001 and work was completed on the components in early 2002. Essentially, the aircraft is an international passenger/cargo airliner geared towards long-haul operations, compared to the larger Boeing 747 series of the 1960s.

The A380 won several launch customers even before the first aircraft took off. Production began in 2004 and the prototype debuted on 18 January 2005 in Toulouse, France. A few months later, on April 27, 2005, it completed its maiden flight.

The manufacture of the aircraft involves a multi-country logistics route that includes Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and, of course, the home country of France. A total of five airframes were reserved for evaluation services and received product certification in December 2006.

By then, development costs skyrocketed accordingly, and production faced delays of months before escalating into years. The route was officially launched on 25 October 2007, with the launch customer being Singapore Airlines (known as "AQ380"), although delays continued until 2008. Emirates followed up as a customer in August 2008.

The 100th aircraft in the series was delivered to Malaysia Airlines on March 14, 2013, and approximately 119 A380s have been completed to date (January 2014) and are still in production at the time of writing. The full list of previous carriers includes Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qantas, Air France, Lufthansa, Korean Air, China Southern, Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways and British Airways.

The A380's cockpit features dual pilot controls and an all-glass approach with five large, full-color Multi-Function Displays (MFDs). Throttle control is managed on the center console, and each pilot gets sidestick controller inputs that mimic the configuration of modern military fighter jets.

The passenger area adopts a two-level approach (with a belly to load the aircraft), and the fuselage of the aircraft is very low when viewed from the side. In a three-class configuration, the A380 can carry around 555 passengers, and up to 850 passengers in a first-class configuration.

Overall fuselage length is 239 feet, wingspan is 262 feet, and height is 80 feet. The A380 weighs 610,000 pounds and has a maximum takeoff weight of 1.3 million pounds (freighter model) when fully loaded.

Power provided by Engine Alliance GP7270 (70,000 lb thrust), Rolls-Royce Trent 970-972/B (70,000-72,000 lb thrust) or Engine Alliance GP7277 (76,000 lb thrust) and Rolls-Royce Trent 977/B (76,000 lb). thrust) turbofan engines (passenger or freighter models). Top speed is 630 mph, with a reported cruising speed of 590 mph and a service range of 9,750 miles (6,400 miles on freighter models).

The aircraft has a service ceiling of 43,100 feet.

To date (January 2014) there have been no fatal crashes of the A380 family. In November 2010, a Singapore-Sydney flight was forced to return after an engine failure, but no casualties were reported in the incident.

A subsequent inspection of the in-game Rolls-Royce engine revealed an oil leak, forcing other Trent engines to be inspected and repaired. Further inspection revealed cracks in the wings, forcing further evaluation of all A380s in service.

The A380-800 is expected to be revised through an improvement plan announced in 2010. This will result in increased maximum takeoff weight and longer range. This should be the next standardized passenger model available. The A380-900 is an enlarged variant (though officially delayed since then) with more passenger seats (up to 650 as standard).

The A380F stands for the freighter model, and although early orders from customers have been withdrawn due to delays, Airbus is currently shelving the model for emergencies.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes