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Building the A380

Posted by chrisd on from the i'll-take-two dept.

Gavinsblog writes "The Independent has a report on the construction of the Airbus A380. Amazingly, a ship is being custom-built to ferry parts for assembly, a custom fleet of trucks are also to be used - with roads widened to suit. Oh and the assembly building is the size of two soccer pitches, and the height of an olympic swimming pool."

1 of 359 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What about Customs? by Quarters · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Read the last paragraph of the article, it is pretty telling. Airbus expects the majority of the orders for the A380 to go to Pacific rim carriers. The same carriers that use 747s for all flights all day long now. In that market it is well suited. (hundreds of people flying 8-12 hours on average, most all flights direct). For trans-Atlantic flights it is overkill.

    A (non Concorde) flight from NY to Heathrow takes just about as long as a flight from NY to LA. The only really long flight out of the US is LA to Hawaii, but there's not enough demand on that route to make replacing 747s with A380s feasible.

    There's also the problem of airport infrastructure. an 80m wide double decker airplane will have a very hard time fitting into any gate spot in an airport anywhere in the world, currently. The only exception I can think of is Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport. It is so new that they might have engineered it with larger gate spots to accomodate future aircraft. Airport infrastructre is actually a pretty large design factor in new airframe development. Airbus is pushing the envelope with something as big as the A380. Airbus even offers documentation on airport planning for A380 accomodation.

    Part of airport planning is passenger flow. That's a big issue with the A380. How do you get 555 people off of an airplane quickly? The standard one or two Jetway gate isn't going to work. If I remember correctly, the A380 has fourteen extis, eight on the main deck (four per side) and six on the upper deck (three per side). The rear most doors are father back along the aircraft than any current jetway system can reach. To really use an A380, airlines are going to have to pay to get their airport concourses upgraded. Not something they will do lightly. Not something I expect to see them do in the US.

    The infrastructure changes are what is giving most carriers cold feet with regards to the A380. It'll be very hard to run numbers that show upgrading to the A380 will be cost effective in a reasonable time-line, imho. Pacific rim carriers have the best chances of making it work. Now the question is whether or not they're interested.