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Flying the Airbus A380

Posted by Zonk on from the everything-should-come-with-a-bar dept.

FloatsomNJetsom writes "So the largest passenger airplane in the world actually is pretty large inside — Popular Mechanics has a great article and video from their test flight on the brand new double-decker Airbus A380. This includes footage of takeoff, interviews with the pilot and test engineer, a rundown on the bar, the two staircases, and an attempt to walk down a crowded aisle from one end of the plane to the other without having to say 'excuse me.'"

3 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. Too big: by ZwJGR · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The only snag with using these huge Airbuses, is that they are too large for many of the gates.
    Either you have to build more spread-out gates, or you park the plane in the middle of the tarmac and drive a bus to it.
    Either way you have to spend ages and go miles to actually get to the plane.
    At Heathrow it's bad enough with small planes, you spend 45 minutes getting to the gate...
    When your gate is an extra-wide one...
    I can just imagine: Your flight at Gate Q587, leaves in 1 hour, you've checked in and you're at the departure lounge. Start running.

    --
    There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face - Ben Williams
  2. How to play it? by short · · Score: 0, Redundant

    How can /. post about a video not playable by a Free software?

    Or is there some Free player for such content?
  3. Re:First Air Disaster by Rich0 · · Score: 1, Redundant

    And how many disasters have been caused by having a human in the loop? How many cases of runway incursions, etc?

    And if you want to talk about mechanical failures - how about when the pilot has a heart attack? His body is a machine just like any other and is subject to the same principles of maintenance and failures.

    A computer doesn't need to be perfect - it just needs to be better than a human. And how many more software bugs could be fixed with the money we'd save by not paying pilots?

    Software doesn't have to have bugs. And if it stays in production long enough it eventually won't have any - if there is a standard of perfection and the complexity of software is finite, then eventually that standard will be reached.

    I think that the idea that no machine could ever be engineered capable of flight better in EVERY respect than ANY human pilot is a romantic one.