The 555 seat Airbus A380-800, with a non-stop range of 8,000nm, was launched in December 2000. The aircraft began production in January 2002. The first flight (with the Rolls-Royce engines) took place from Blagnac Airport, Toulouse, in April 2005. Over 100 test flights were completed before its first commercial flight by Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Sydney took place on 25 October 2007.
Other test flights included one in October 2005, a third in November 2005, fourth in February 2006 and fifth in May 2006. One test aircraft took part in the flight display at the Farnborough International Airshow in July 2006.
The A380, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, received joint European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Type Certification on 12 December 2006. In January 2007, Airbus became the first company to receive ISO 14001 environmental certification for its products. In March 2007, one A380 test aircraft flew to New York and one to Los Angeles, the first transatlantic flights of the A380.
The first A380 was delivered to Singapore Airlines (SIA) on 15 October 2007, and entered service on 25 October with a flight from Singapore to Sydney. SIA sold the tickets for the flight by online auction on eBay, the proceeds going to charity.
A second A380 was delivered to SIA in January 2008 and a third in March 2008. SIA began scheduled A380 flights between Singapore and London on 18 March 2008.
The first flight with the General Electric / Pratt & Whitney Engine Alliance GP7200 was in August 2006 and the A380 powered by the GP7200 received FAA and EASA certification in December 2007. Launch customer for the A380 with this engine was Emirates with first delivery in July 2008. Emirates launched the A380 on its Dubai to New York route in August 2008.
First delivery to Qantas was in September 2008. The airline commenced A380 services in October 2008.
Airbus delivered 13 A380 aircraft in 2008 - five SIA, three to Qantas and four to Emirates.
Air France took delivery of its first Airbus A380 on 30 October 2009. It received the aircraft in a delivery ceremony that took place in Hamburg, Germany.
Assembly
Airbus's A380 aircraft sections were transported from sites in Broughton (UK), Hamburg (Germany), Puerto Real (Spain) and St Nazaire (France) in a specially constructed huge roll-on / roll-off vessel, the "Ville de Bordeaux", built by Jinling Shipyard in Nanjing, China.
The vessel was launched in July 2003 and had the largest water stern door (22m x 14m) ever built on a ro-ro vessel. It took take the components to Bordeaux. From there they were transported via specially constructed barges up the Garonne River and then transferred by road trailer to the final assembly line in Toulouse. A second ro-ro vessel, the City of Hamburg, built at ST Marine in Singapore, was delivered on 4 December 2008 and a third in early 2009.
A380 Orders
As of November 2009 17 customers had announced firm orders for 202 A380 airliners, including: Singapore Airlines (launch customer with an order for 19 aircraft and five options), Lufthansa (15), Emirates (58), Air France (12), Qantas (20), British Airways (12 plus seven options), Malaysia Airlines (six), Virgin Atlantic (six) International Lease Finance (ten), Kingfisher Airlines (five), Qatar Airways (five), Korean Air (ten), Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad (MAS) (six), Thai Airways (six), Etihad Airways (ten), Kingdom Holding Company (one), Air Austral (two) and China Southern Airlines (five).On 17 November 2009, Air Austral ordered two Airbus A380s to accommodate 840 passengers in a single-class configuration.
"The A380 has twin-aisle cabins on the upper and lower decks, with 49% more floor space for 35% higher seating capacity."
In June 2007, Air France ordered an additional two, Emirates an additional eight and Qatar Airways an additional three aircraft. As of December 2008, 14 aircraft had been delivered.
In March 2007, UPS announced its intention to cancel the freighter order. Airbus decided to halt the freighter programme until delays to the passenger version have been resolved.
In November 2007, the first order for the A380 Flying Palace, the VIP variant, was placed by HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud.
In February 2008, an Airbus A380 made the first flight of a commercial airliner powered by a liquid fuel processed from gas, GTL (Gas to Liquids), under the company’s alternative fuel research programme. One engine was fuelled with a blend of 40% GTL and standard jet fuel, the other three with standard fuel.
Flight deck
The A380 is a member of the Airbus Flight Operational Commonality family with similar flight decks and operating procedures in the A320, A330 and A340 aircraft, providing easy crew transition training, cross crew qualification and mixed fleet flying.Rockwell Collins supplies communications systems including VHF and HF radios and multimode receivers. Northrop Grumman provides the LTN-101E inertial navigation system. Smiths Industries provides the video management unit which includes the display from cockpit door and cabin surveillance systems. L-3 Aviation Recorders of Florida provides flight data and cockpit voice recorders.
Construction
In order to minimise the unladen weight, the Airbus 380 structures incorporate a range of new materials as used on the A318 and A340 families of aircraft. Carbon fiber reinforced plastic is used for the central box of the wings, the horizontal stabilizers (which are the same size as the Airbus A310 wing), the fin, the rear fuselage section and for ceiling beams.
A new material, Glare, that is highly resistant to fatigue is used in the construction of the panels for the upper fuselage. The aluminium and fibreglass layers of Glare do not allow propagation of cracks, it is much lighter than conventional materials and represents a weight saving of about 500kg in the construction. Impact resistant thermoplastics are used on the wing leading edge. The aircraft has 16 wing spoilers supplied by Patria of Finland.
The A380 incorporates two rather than three Eaton Corporation hydraulic systems with an increased hydraulic pressure of 5,000lb/in² instead of a standard 3,000psi.
Upper and lower decks
The size of the A380 makes possible a number of configurations and passenger facilities. Singapore Airlines (launch customer) has a configuration for 471 passengers – 12 first class 'suites' and 311 economy seats on the main deck, 60 business class seat and 88 economy seats on the upper deck.
There are eight full-size doors on either side of the aircraft. On both sides, there are two doors on the main deck and one door on the upper deck forward of the wing that can be used simultaneously for embarking or disembarking passengers. For speedy baggage transfer, two hold loading belts, one at the forward end and one at the rear end under the fuselage can be used simultaneously.
Matsushita Avionics Systems was selected to supply its next-generation eX2 inflight entertainment system.
Engines
The aircraft is equipped with four 70,000lb thrust engines, either the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or the General Electric / Pratt & Whitney Engine Alliance GP7200. Rolls-Royce delivered the first Trent 900 engine in February 2004 and it made a successful first flight on an A340-300 testbed in May 2004. The first testbed flight of GP7200 was successfully completed on 4 December 2004.
Goodrich supplies the engine sensor system for the Trent 900 and Ametek the sensor system for the GP7200. BAE Systems Controls and Hispano-Suiza provides the FADEC (full authority digital electronic control) system for the GP7200.
The take-off length is 2,900m at maximum weight at sea level, ISA +15° conditions and the initial cruise altitude 35,000ft. The aircraft complies with the noise emission limits of ICAO (Chapter 3, Schedule 16) for overfly, approach and side-on manoeuvres and stricter regulations of London Heathrow airport concerning take-off and landing. This enables aircraft operations at night.
There are ten fuel tanks with a capacity of 131,000l of fuel. Refueling can be carried out in 40 minutes.
Landing gear
Performance
Maximum operating speed is Mach 0.89 and the range is 15,000km or 8,000nm with the maximum number of passengers.
The turnaround time at the airport terminal, including passenger disembarking, cleaning, restocking and embarking the passengers for the next flight is a minimum of 90 minutes.
A380-800F freighter version
The A380 is the first major commercial airliner program with a freighter version being co-developed as part of the new aircraft launch. The A380-800F can transport 150t of freight using standard, interlineable containers and pallets. The full payload range of the A380-800 F is 5,600nm. Launch customers were FedEx (ten aircraft) and Emirates (two) and first deliveries are scheduled for 2012, behind the original schedule of 2008.The upper deck of the A380-800F version is 5.92m wide and can hold 17 pallets. The main deck's maximum width is 6.58m and it can accommodate 28 pallets.
Other probable derivatives of the A380 are an extended range version, A380-800R and a stretched version A380-900.
Change in delivery schedule
With global credit crunch and due to crisis in the aviation sector, Airbus has changed its A380 delivery plans. Airbus is now expected to deliver 14 A380 aircraft in 2009 and more than 20 in 2010. Future deliveries would depend on airline demand and availability of customer financing.
SPECIFICATION:
Dimensions:
Length
72.7m
Height
24.1m
Fuselage Diameter
7.14m
Cabin Length
49.90m
Maximum Cabin Width, Main Deck
6.58m
Maximum Cabin Width, Upper Deck
5.92m
Wheelbase
30.4m
Wheel Track
14.3m
Wing Area
846m²
Sweep, 25% Chord
33.5°
Weights:
Maximum Ramp Weight
562t
Maximum Take-off Weight
560t
Maximum Landing Weight
386t
Maximum Zero Fuel Weight
361t
Maximum Fuel Capacity
320,000l
Typical Operating Empty Weight
276.8t
Typical Volume Payload
66.4t
Engines:
Powerplants
4 x RR Trent 900 or GE/PW Alliance GP 7000
Thrust
70,000lb slst
Performance:
Typical Seating
525 passengers
Range with Maximum Number of Passengers
15,200km (8,000nm)
Maximum Operating Speed
Mach 0.89
Cargo
Total Freight and Cargo
171m³
Bulk Hold Volume
18.4m³
Maximum Number of Pallets
Underfloor 13 pallets
Container Capacity
Underfloor 38 LD3 containers
Bulk Hold Cargo
17.3m³
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