Up, up and away, In our beautiful new Super-Jumbo

The A380 has taken off from Toulouse on the start of it's maiden flight across the Bay of Biscay.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4488361.stm

God, but's it's a huge beast...

 

Just watched the video on the BBC showing the take-off it looks so strange - "How the hell can that thing be taking off like that?".

The things like lounge areas and bars look really exciting, but you just know that easyjet et al. are just going to fill every available mm² with seats.

 

Thats cool, agree with acrim. Even more of a risk of a terroist attack?

 

There are some pics to show scale. Even one weel is way bigger than a person .

 

First flight completed - she's back on the runway at Toulouse.

 

It doesn't look like its much bigger than a 747 really other than the wings. The lounge spaces and gyms are a cool idea but I agree with acrim that the space will just be filled with seats, I mean why would the airlines put that in when there's room for a load more paying passengers. I hope it doesn't become another concorde though.

 

Looks impressive... The Super-Jumbo concept carried even further. Major kudoes to all the engineers who designed that beast.

 

It isn't that much bigger than a 747 but just think of how mny people it can hold, up to 800 but they will fly only 500. If i had the money i would definatley fly business class on that rather than the 747.

 

i heard/saw about this earlier on the radio/tv and the thing i found funny was that fact that they said the pilots took parachutes with them...

and another thing i laughed at was that they said it was something like 150 tonnes in weight.. and it got off the ground... cant wait to fly on it some day..

 

The wingspan isn't too much bigger than a 747 but it's fully double deckered and wider along the cabin. This thing is going to be amazing to fly business class in!

 

youve ot to love design stresses too, look at how the wings flex and bend during flight. simply fantastic i also think Boeing and Airbus will make loads of money. Boeing for short flights/cargo. Airbus for long flights/even MORE cargo.
although the Antonov holds that record.

An-225

 

actually according to the article the inside is only .48m wider... that's what? 2 extra seats? w00t! More people sneezing on me!
No offense guys, but the 747 has been around for what? 25 years? This looks a lot like reinventing the wheel. Just think if all that money had been put into consumer orbital flights... The real problem with building such a large plane now. In a matter of years we will see consumer orbital flights, then what will this plane be used for? A) short flights (expensive) or B) ghetto long-range flights (which means there will be no business class and there WILL be 800+ people on a flight AND they won't be well-maintained)
I'm trying to see this as objectively as possible, and it just doesn't look like a smart move. I mean, are airlines in Europe doing well? They sure aren't here...

 

its a shame they didnt use the new GE engines on that thing

I was watching the discovery channel (I watch it like a fiend) and they had some of the new GE engines on (the model number eludes me now) but they are roughly 2x the size of a regular 747 engine

the new engines can

1. injest one ton of ice and not FOD out
2. blow 400 pound chunks of concrete off the end of the runway behind them
3. injest tons of water and not have an engine fail
4. has better fuel economy than almost everything out there

 

the trent 900 is the best choice for the plane, smaller, lighter and more efficient. it can also burn a "lower" grade fuel with little performance hits. its been in development for a while and i would consider it the best.
the marine trent can burn light crude if need be

 

More like 270 tonnes empty. Fully fuelled and laden they'll weigh over 500!

 

What are the fuel statistics like? Is it cheaper (in environmental costs) to fly lots of people at the same time or does this baby burn continent sized holes in the ozone layer just to take off?

Call me cynical but I just can't help thinking of the phrase 'don't put all your eggs in one basket' when I see this thing, it looks like the worlds worst air disaster waiting to happen

It is a feat of engineering skill that something so huge can take off and fly through the air though! Kudos to the guy who dreamed it up.

 

Max. take-off weight: 560 tonnes
Max. landing weight: 386 tonnes

Frickin jeez! If taking off with full load of fuel and passengers, it's got to burn ~180 tonnes of fuel before it can land.

 

That's nuts. Take off looked like it was floating. Modern engineering is truely a miraculous thing sometimes.

 

I don't see any orbital SCRAMjets taking off anytime soon... that technology is at least a decade away from commercial application, if not two.

Actually it can just dump the fuel in an emergency. Still, I wouldn't want to be caught in a shower of 180 tonnes of airplane fuel...

But yeah, good engineering is just so darn sexy... absolutely awesome. Sometimes my wife and I visit the Birmingham Science Museum just to stand there in the great hall downstairs, looking at the whole collection of massive Victorian steam engines they have running there.

 

oops must of read the wrong one... i just typed in airbus a380 into google and looked at the 1st hit on the airbus website..