A380 is OUT!

After a successful first flight back in 27 April 2005, the Airbus A380 is currently in London's Heathrow Airport for its test on whether the airport can handle the "superjumbo" jet. The A380 is larger than the Boeing 747-400, which was the largest passenger jet for over 35 years. I will always have a special fondness for the 747, one of the most graceful aircrafts ever to exist by human engineering.

Wikipedia released a simple chart comparing the sizes of three largest aircrafts:

The A380 is larger than the Boeing 747-400 but slightly smaller than the Antonov An-225, currently still the world's largest airplane. The An-225 was developed by the Russians during the Soviet era to carry the Buran, the Soviet version of the space shuttle.

Despite its gigantic body, the An-225 can only carry about 80 passengers, since it is mostly a cargo aircraft. The A380 boasts a capacity of over 500 passengers, and falls short of the 747 by a hair in terms of maximum speed (747: 600 mph at 30,000 feet, A380: 595 mph at 35,000 feet). The 747-400 weighs about 181 metric ton, whereas the A380 weighs around 277 metric ton. Still, both aircrafts are quite light relatively speaking, since they are simply enormous objects. The An-225 beats (or loses to, since you want the aircraft to be as light as possible) both jets in the weight competition with a whopping 285 metric ton.

Here is a clip of the A380 in her maiden flight last year on Google Video. I'd recommend you to turn down your speakers, since the music they used is quite annoying. The soundtrack I listened while watching the clip was Massive Attack's 100th Window. Here is another clip of the A380 being assembled. It's AMAZING to see that much of the assembly process is still being done by human hands.

The A380 are expected to be in service sometime at the end of 2006.

Fly on, A380...

(taken from the Paris Air Show 2005)