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 toSydney 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 upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, and its width is equivalent to that of a widebody aircraft. This allows for an A380-800's cabin with 5,146 square feet (478.1 m2) of floor space; 49% more floor space than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400 with 3,453 square feet (320.8 m2), and provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in all-economy class configurations. The postponed freighter version, the A380-800F, is offered as one of the largest freight aircraft, with a payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225.[3] The A380-800 has a design range of 15,200 km (8,200 nmi), sufficient to fly from New York to Hong Kong for example, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude).
Service
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 was reported that the A380 had carried 1.5 million passengers during 41 thousand flight hours and 4200 flights. Air France received their first A380 on 30 October 2009, arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Lufthansa received its first A380 on 19 May 2010.
Future Variants
Improved A380-800
From 2013, Airbus will offer, as an option, improved maximum take-off weight, thus providing a better payload/range performance. The option was introduced in order to counter a perceived strength of the 747-8I, the latest revision of the Boeing 747. Maximum take-off weight is increased by 4t, to 573t. The increases are made possible by optimising the fly-by-wire control laws to reduce flight loads. British Airways and Emirates will be the first customers to receive this new option.
[edit]A380-900
In November 2007, Airbus top sales executive and chief operating officer John Leahy confirmed plans for an enlarged variant, the A380-900, which would be slightly longer than the A380-800 (79.4–73 m or 260–240 ft). This version would have a seating capacity of 650 passengers in standard configuration, and approximately 900 passengers in economy-only configuration. In May 2010, Airbus announced that A380-900 production was postponed, until production of the A380-800 has stabilised. Airlines that have expressed interest in the model include Emirates, Virgin Atlantic, Cathay Pacific, Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, Kingfisher Airlines, as well as the leasing company ILFC.
[edit]A380-800 freighter
Although Airbus originally accepted orders for the freighter version, production has been suspended until the A380 production lines have settled. No firm date has been offered for delivery of the first freighter.
| Airline | First commercial flight | Number in service |
|---|---|---|
 Air France | 20 November 2009[201] | 3 |
 Emirates | 1 August 2008[75] | 10 |
 Lufthansa | 6 June 2010[202] | 1 |
 Qantas | 20 October 2008[76] | 6 |
 Singapore Airlines | 25 October 2007[71] | 10 |
No comments:
Post a Comment