DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum AirBus Delivers the First A380 to Singapore Airlines Monday

A380 by the numbers

Airbus delivered the first A380, the world's commercial largest airliner, to Singapore Airlines on Monday.

It comes 18 months later than expected after costly delays triggered by trouble in wiring the mammoth double-decker planes.

Here are some key facts on how the plane measures up:

• The A380 double-decker is the length of eight buses and has enough room on its massive wings to park 70 cars.

• An all-economy class A380 could seat 853 passengers versus 568 for a Boeing 747. A stretched version expected to be developed in the future could seat more than 1,000 passengers.
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• With typical first class, business and economy cabins, the A380 will seat 555 passengers. A 747 laid out the same way seats 416.

• The A380 is about 50 feet wider, about 13 feet taller, about 6 feet longer and 118 tonnes heavier than the 747-400, which has reigned as the largest airliner for four decades.

• The A380 looks like a 747 with the upper deck stretched all the way back to the tail.

• Cocktail bars, casinos, showers, libraries and sleeping quarters for staff are among the novel ways airlines could use the A380's space.

• A wingspan of 261 feet, 10 inches, means the A380 is too large for most airport docking bays. UK-based airport operator BAA alone has budgeted $917.8 million to build larger facilities to handle the planes.

• At take-off the A380's four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines will generate as much thrust as 3,500 cars. The Trent 900 engines have accumulated over 14,000 flying hours on four of the five A380s used in flight testing.

• An alliance between GE and Pratt & Whitney is also supplying engines.

• The A380 has 16 passenger doors and escape slides on both decks, with the upper slides standing 26.5-feet high.

• Customers expect at least a 15% improvement in costs per seat-mile compared with the Boeing 747-400 jumbo.

• The A380 is the second biggest plane ever built. It is topped by the six-engine Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, of which only two have been built. Designed to carry space shuttles for the former Soviet Union, the An-225 is 36.5-feet longer and 26.5-feet wider but not as tall as the A380.

• Howard Hughes's ill-fated Spruce Goose flying boat, which flew once in 1947 and was designed to carry 750 troops, had a wider wingspan to incorporate its eight engines but was shorter than the A380.

• The A380 will be most common on long routes linking Asia and the Middle East to Europe and the United States. Flights to and from Australia are also expected to be a key market.

• The program has cost $17.06 billion to develop, with suppliers' and European government loans helping to offset the cost.

• Airbus says it needs to sell 420 of the planes to recover its costs, while some brokerage analysts put the figure much higher.

• Airbus is less than half-way to its own break-even level with 165 orders booked with 14 customers.

• The A380 has a list price of $319.2 million.

• Dubai airline Emirates is the biggest buyer with an order for 47 of the superjumbos worth $14 billion.

• Parcel delivery firms Federal Express and United Parcel Service both canceled their A380 orders, citing the program's delay. Airbus has had to pay late fees to customers such as Australia's Qantas Airways.

Sources: Reuters/Airbus
Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. Click for Restrictions.
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Great, a bigger plane, with more people stuffed into the same size seats as any other plane. Sounds comfortable.

I dread flying to Rome next year.

The flight isn't bad but the city....yuck. Don't know your plans but go to the Veneto region if you can. A little city called Vicenza is a really neat place to check out as is Verona and Florence.I know you won't but you could skip Venice and leave the romaticized version that you get from books in your head instead of seeing the overhyped,over polluted, dirty city that it really is.

We're taking a 12 day cruise, so we will be hitting several places, then we extended our stay at the end 2 days to spend in Rome before heading home. Basically because I want to see the coliseum and stuff like, and chill a little before jumping in a plane again.

Italy is number one on my places to see list. I probably wouldn't see much of Rome, but spend more time at Vatican City. So much to see in Italy though, I'm not sure how I could condense it into a 2 week vacation.

Lots to see and do. I was there for 2 years and just scratched the surface. I will say that my most memorable times were the little villages I stopped in on the way to the big destinations . Northern Italy stands out in my mind as one of the most scenic places on Earth and the food .....oh my !!

I would agree with that! When we went to Cancun, the best day in my opinion was when we rented a car and hit all the little towns in between Cancun and Playa Del Carmen.

As for Italy, my wife has already informed me how amazing the food is ... and I already consider Olive Garden to be good eating.

If your taste buds enjoy the Italian food at the Garden then when you go to Italy they'll freak out. I used to pick one ingedient on the menu that I recognized and then order that dish with no idea of what I was getting and I never regretted one dish that I had. What is so cool is that each region has it's own specialty and I could never pick a favorite.

It's a big one...You won't see many, if any, US carriers buy the plane. There's not enough passengers for the frequency of any flights to any city to compensate for flying the plane. I know American Airlines doesn't like the Airbus because they break down too much and they are "fly by wire", which mean everything is basically computer controlled for less human error. If something goes wrong with the system in the aircraft, it takes forever to correct the problem. I've worked on Airbuses in my career as a flight attendant and they have alot of problems and pilots don't like flying them, at least at American.

Cool information man! I fly a lot for work and love to hear about the workings of airplanes. I have always liked Airbus - I've flown on a lot of A320's; I've talked with a lot of pilots and they seem to like them too.

I've also been lucky enought to fly on some business class jets like G4's and G5's. Talk about sweet planes! When the seats in the cabin are full I ALWAYS voluteer to sit in the jump seat up front with the pilots. Gulfstreams are simply amazing aircraft. I've also flown in some smaller Lears.