Airbus A380 Completes Maiden Test Flight

crazy blade writes "The much anticipated maiden test flight of the Airbus A380 jumbo jet is underway. The aircraft left Blagnac International Airport in Toulouse, France at 10.29 hours local time (08.29 UTC) from runway 32L. Here are some photos if you're interested."

Comments

Bigger than Howard Hughes' dream

[Dancin_Santa]

It's amazing that this giant of an airplane is actually bigger than the legendary Spruce Goose. It's amazing how technology has progressed from a rudimentary wooden substructure to this bleeding edge aluminum/steel airframe. Lighter, stronger, and more economical than Hughes could ever have imagined, this Airbus A380 is a marvel of modern manufacturing.

The only issue is whether the capacity will be taken advantage of effectively. While most flights now are booked solid, will the number of passengers be high enough to make the construction of these behemoths profitable?

Re:Bigger than Howard Hughes' dream

[CaptainZapp]

The only issue is whether the capacity will be taken advantage of effectively. While most flights now are booked solid, will the number of passengers be high enough to make the construction of these behemoths profitable?

That's exactly the question on which Airbus bet the farm.

Personally I think it will take off, due to anticipated demand by India and especially China to haul as many passengers as possible with one plane between cities. Airports can host a finite amount of flights only. So the more people you can squeeze into a plane the more you can transport in any given timeframe from one airport to another.

Re:Bigger than Howard Hughes' dream

[Khomar]

It's amazing that this giant of an airplane is actually bigger than the legendary Spruce Goose. It's amazing how technology has progressed from a rudimentary wooden substructure to this bleeding edge aluminum/steel airframe.

It should be noted that the technology existed to build a plane out of aluminum when the Spruce Goose was created. The reason that it was made out of wood was so as not to deplete the metals that were used to make weapons in World War II due to shortages of supplies. Later Hughes' stubbornly refused to change to aluminum when the metal shortage was lessoned. Check out this site for the story.

Re:Finally

[ghoul]

Actually the A380 is more fuel efficient than the 747 even though its bigger as it uses composites. In fact its fuel efficiency per passenger mile is at par with modern sedans and much higher than suvs.
The 777 is a much smaller plane than the A380. With such a large plane it makes sense to have 4 engines.
Passenger planes have to be designed such that they can fly on with single engine failure. With 2 engines each engine has to be strong enough to drive the plane on its own. With 4 engine failure scenario require the plane to fly on 3 engines hence each engine has to be only 1/3rd total load.
The wastage in excess power is much less 1/3-1/4 1-1/2

Videos

[Tx]

Direct link to (crappy but watchable quality) videos:

Take off
In flight

Re:When will India/China/Brazil/Russia enter the r

[ghoul]

India and China both manufacture their own versions of the MIG. Also they are both developing their own fighter jets prototypes of which are already flying. Brazil Canada and Ukraine have strong regional jets. So it is not so much of a stretch for them to shift over to widebody jets especially given their domestic airlines are buying so many of these jets anyway. For that matter even the Japanese and Korean are great shipbuilders and plane building and ship building a lot similar in that they are both piecework and they require highly advanced metal working tech. So they too could come into the picture. Its probably the strong brand leadership of Airbus and Boeing combined with the government subsidies which they get which keeps them on top. But I expect at least the Chinese government to subsidize its own manufacturer

Re:It's the economy model, stupid - err ..

[TekGoNos]

Given the number of 787 orders (Over 230) vs. A380 (150), it seems that there are more companies that agree with Boeing's vision of Point-to-Point vs. big hub systems.

Well, of course you need less big planes as small ones.

As the 787 carries 217, 257 or 289 passengers and the A380 typically 555, the numbers become : over 66470 (230*289) seats ordered for the Boeing 787 and 83250 for the A380. Seen this way, Airbus has the edge ;)

Personally, I think that it isnt yet decided which company did the right bet. Probably both the 787 and the A380 will both be popular. However, IMHO, the 747 is dead.

Re:You're much safer on the Airbus

[peteran]

Software Engineering Case Studies / Airbus flight control system