Airbus A380
, was unveiled in a ceremony in Toulouse on
18 January 2005.
Its maiden flight took place at 8:29
UTC (10:29 a.m. local time)
27 April 2005. The prototype departed runway 32L of
Blagnac International Airport in Toulouse with a flight crew of six with the test pilot being
Jacques Rosay, carrying 22
short tons (20
metric tons) of flight test instrumentation and water ballasts. The take-off weight of the aircraft was 421 tonnes (464 short tons): although this was only 75% of its maximum take-off weight for commercial flights, it was the heaviest take-off weight of any passenger airliner ever created.
Airbus initially planned about 15 months of flight testing, but shortly after the first flight they acknowledged that the airplane would not be ready for formal certification and commercial use until near the end of 2006, resulting in delays of 6 months or more for initial contracted deliveries.
In mid-November 2005 the A380 embarked on a tour of Southeast Asia and Australia for both promotional and long-haul flight testing purposes, visiting
Singapore,
Brisbane,
Sydney,
Melbourne and
Kuala Lumpur. During this tour, the colours of
Singapore Airlines,
Qantas and
Malaysia Airlines were applied in addition to the house colours. On
19 November an A380 flew in full
Emirates colors at the Dubai Air Show.
The A380 made its first transatlantic flight to
MedellĂn in
Colombia, on
10 January 2006 to test engine performance at a high altitude airport. Its first arrival in
North America came on
6 February, when an A380 landed in
Iqaluit, Nunavut in
Canada for cold-weather testing.
(CBC) The same A380 then flew to
Singapore in
Singapore Airlines livery to participate in the static and flying displays at the Asian Aerospace 2006 exhibition.
On
26 March 2006 the A380 underwent evacuation certification in
Hamburg in
Germany. The test, which was done to meet regulatory requirements, involved evacuating 853 passengers and 20 crew from the aircraft within 90 seconds with 8 of the 16 exits blocked.
[Airbus Evacuates 873 People From A380 in 80 Seconds in Test Andrea Rothman, Bloomberg, 26 March 2006] On
29 March the A380 received
European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and United States
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to carry 853 passengers, indicating that the evacuation trial had met their certification standards.
["Pictures: Airbus A380 clears European and US certification hurdles for evacuation trial." Flight International. 29 March 2006]Four A380s have been built for testing and demonstration purposes. The first A380 slated for delivery to a customer, serial number 003 and registration , took to the air in May 2006.As of July 2006, six A380s have flown over 1,400 hours during 430 flights. The maiden flight for theA380 with GP7200 engines (F-WWEA) is planned for July 2006.
|
A380 cabin cross section, showing economy class seating |
The new Airbus is currently sold in two models. The
A380-800 can carry 555 passengers in a
three-class configuration or up to 853 passengers in a single-class economy configuration. The range for the -800 model is 15,000 kilometres (about 8,000 nmi)
. The second model, the
A380-800F freighter, will carry 150
tonnes of cargo 10,400 km (about 5,600 nmi).
Future variants may include an A380-900 stretch seating about 650 passengers, a shortened A380-700 seating about 455 passengers, and an extended range version with the same passenger capacity as the A380-800.
Cockpit
Airbus made the cockpit layout, procedures and handling characteristics similar to those of other Airbus aircraft to reduce crew training costs. Accordingly, the A380 features an improved
glass cockpit, and
fly-by-wire flight controls linked to
side-sticks.
The improved cockpit displays feature eight 15-by-20 cm (6-by-8-inch)
liquid crystal displays, all of which are physically identical and interchangeable. These comprise two
Primary Flight Displays, two navigation displays, one engine parameter display, one system display and two
Multi-Function Displays. These MFDs are new with the A380, and provide an easy-to-use interface to the
flight management systemâ€"replacing three multifunction control and display units. They include
QWERTY keyboards and trackballs, interfacing with a
graphical "
point-and-click" display navigation system.
[ Flight Deck Specifications Airbus S.A.S.]Engines
Either the
Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or
Engine Alliance GP7200 turbofans may power the A380. Both are derived from predecessors available on the
Boeing 777. The Trent 900 is the scaled version of the Trent 800 but incorporating sweptback fan and counter-rotating spools of the stillborn Trent 8107.
[Trent 900 Specifications Rolls-Royce] The GP7200 has GE90 derived core and PW4090 derived fan and low-pressure turbo-machinery.
[GP7200 Specifications Engine Alliance] The Trent 900, the launch engine, initially gained most sales. However, the Engine Alliance GP7201 sales have grown substantially, currently outselling the Trent 900 by a sizable margin.
Advanced materials
Composite materials make up 25% of the A380's airframe, by weight.
Carbon-fibre reinforced plastic,
glass-fibre reinforced plastic and quartz-fibre reinforced plastic are used extensively in wings, fuselage sections, tail surfaces, and doors. The A380 is the first commercial airliner with a central wing box made of carbon fibre reinforced plastic.
Thermoplastics are used in the leading edges of the
slats. The new material
GLARE (GLAss-REinforced fibre metal laminate) is used in the upper fuselage and on the stabilizers' leading edges. This
aluminium-
glass-fibre laminate is lighter and has better corrosion and impact resistance than conventional aluminium
alloys used in aviation. Unlike earlier composite materials, it can be repaired using conventional aluminium repair techniques.
[Aerospace Technology - Airbus A380]Newer
weldable aluminium alloys are also used. This enables the widespread use of
laser welding manufacturing techniques - eliminating rows of rivets and resulting in a lighter, stronger structure.
Advanced avionics architecture
The A380 employs Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architecture, first used in advanced military aircraft such as
F-22 Raptor and
Eurofighter Typhoon. It is based on
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) design. Many previous dedicated single-purpose avionics computers are replaced by dedicated software housed in onboard processor modules and servers. This cuts the number of parts as well as providing increased flexibility without resorting to customised avionics. This reduces costs, and benefits from the cheap, commercially available computing power.
The avionics data communication networks employed is switched-
Ethernet based
AFDX following the ARINC 664 specifications. Together with IMA, the A380 avionics is very highly networked. The data networks are switched
full-duplexed star-topology and based on 100baseTX fast-Ethernet. This reduces wires required as well as eliminating
latency. The standard is based on widely approved and adopted standards like Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) and UDP/IP (Internet Protocols).
[ Test Cards for the A380 Charlotte Adams, Aviation Today, July 1 2002]The Network Systems Server (NSS) is the heart of A380 paperless cockpit. It eliminates the bulky manuals and charts traditionally carried by the pilots. The NSS has enough inbuilt robustness to do away with onboard backup paper documents. The A380's network and server system stores data and offers electronic documentation, providing a required equipment list, navigation charts, performance calculations, and an aircraft logbook. All will be accessible to the pilot from two additional 27 cm (11 inch) diagonal LCDs. Each is controlled by its own keyboard and control cursor device mounted in the foldable table in front of each pilot.
Systems
Power-by-wire flight controls actuators are used for the first time in civil service. They function as ultimate flight control backups for the A380. In some conditions they help the primary flight controls during certain manoeuvres. They have self-contained hydraulic and electrical power supplies. They are used as electro-hydrostatic actuators (EHA); used in the aileron and elevator and as electrical backup hydrostatic actuators (EBHA) for the rudder and some spoilers.
['More Electric' Aircraft Charlotte Adams, Aviation Today, 1 October 2001] The aircraft's 350 bar (35 MPa) hydraulic system is an improvement over the typical 207
bar (20.7
MPa or 3,000
psi) system found in other commercial aircraft since the
DC4 Skymaster in 1942. First used in military aircraft, the use of a higher pressure reduces the size of pipelines, actuators and other components for overall weight reduction. The 350 bar (35 MPa or 5,080 psi) pressure is generated by 8 de-clutchable hydraulic pumps. Pipelines are typically made from
titanium and the system features both fuel and air-cooled heat exchangers. The hydraulics system architecture also differs significantly from other airliners. Self-contained electrically-powered hydraulic power packs, instead of secondary hydraulic system, are the backups for the primary systems. This saves weight and reduces maintenance.
[Messier-Dowty hands over first A380 nose landing gear to airbus Messier-Dowty, 9 January 2004]The A380 uses four 150 kVA variable-frequency electrical generators eliminating the constant speed drives for better reliability. The A380 uses aluminium power cables instead of copper for greater weight savings due to the number of cables used for aircraft of this size and complexity. The electrical power system is fully computerized and many
contactors and breakers have been replaced by solid-state devices for better performance and increased reliability.
The A380 features a bulbless illumination system.
LEDs are employed in the cabin, cockpit, cargo and other fuselage areas. The cabin lighting features programmable multi-spectral LEDs capable of simulating the cabin ambience illumination from daylight to night and various shades in between.
HID lighting is used externally giving brighter, whiter and better quality lights. The two technologies used are far superior to the incandescent light bulb in terms of brightness and service life.
[Goodrich softens A380 landings Kirby J. Harrison, Aviation International News, 24 February 2004]Thrust reversers are one of the items that are often faulty in service. The A380 was initially planned to do away with thrust reversers as it has more than enough braking capacity. The
FAA disagreed and Airbus elected to fit the 2 inboard engines with them. The A380 features electrically actuated thrust reversers. This gives better reliability than their pneumatic or hydraulic equivalents besides saving considerable weight.
[Certification tests completed for the A380's GP7200 thrust reverser, Aircelle] Additionally, this reduces the amount of debris blown up during landing, as only the inner two engines go into reverse.
Passenger amenities
Initial publicity stressed the A380's comfort and space, which offers room for such installations as relaxation areas, bars, duty-free shops, and beauty salons. The A380 customer most likely to use this configuration is
Virgin Atlantic Airways, which has a bar in Business Class on its aircraft, and has announced plans to include casinos on its A380s.
Given the history of the airline industry, the A380 will significantly expand the improvements that the 747 made — more seats and lower seat-distance costs — while providing wider seats and better amenities. With 555 passengers, the A380 represents a 35% increase over the 747-400 in standard three-class configuration, along with a nearly 50% larger cabin volume — meaning much more space per passenger. If, however, the plane is ordered in an all-economy-class configuration, it can hold up to 853 passengers, its maximum certified carrying capacity.
[Airbus Evacuates 873 People From A380 in 80 Seconds in Test Andrea Rothman, Bloomberg, 26 March 2006]Airport compatibility
The A380 was designed to fit within an 80 x 80 m airport gate, and can land or take off on any runway that can take a
Boeing 747. However, the airports to be served by the A380 in regular commercial service may undertake certain infrastructure preparations in order to efficiently accommodate the A380. Its large wingspan can require some
taxiway and
apron reconfigurations, to maintain safe separation margins when two of the aircraft pass each other. Taxiway shoulders may be required to be paved to reduce the likelihood of
foreign object damage caused to (or by) the outboard engines, which overhang more than 25 m (80 ft) from the center line of the aircraft. Any taxiway or runway bridges must be capable of supporting the A380's maximum weight. The
terminal gate must be sized such that the A380's wings do not block adjacent gates, and may also provide multiple
jetway bridges for simultaneous boarding on both decks. Service vehicles with lifts capable of reaching the upper deck must be procured, as well as
tractors capable of handling the A380's maximum ramp weight.
The A380 test aircraft have begun a campaign of airport compatibility testing, to verify the modifications already made at several large airports. To date, the airports visited for compatibility testing include Brisbane, Frankfurt, Kuala Lumpur, London
["Airbus A380 jet lands at Heathrow." BBC Business News Online. 18 May 2006.], Melbourne, Singapore, and Sydney.
During construction, the front and rear sections of the fuselage are loaded on an Airbus
RORO ship,
Ville de Bordeaux, in
Hamburg in northern
Germany, whence they are shipped to the
United Kingdom.
There the huge wings, which are manufactured at
Filton in
Bristol and
Broughton in north
Wales, are transported by
barge to
Mostyn docks, where the ship adds them to its cargo. In
Saint-Nazaire in western
France, the ship trades the fuselage sections from Hamburg for larger, assembled sections, some of which include the nose. The ship unloads in
Bordeaux. Afterwards, the ship picks up the belly and tail sections by
Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA in
Cadiz in southern
Spain, and delivers them to Bordeaux. Doors were specially made by
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in
Bangalore in
India.
From there, the A380 parts are transported by barge to
Langon, and by road to an assembly hall in
Toulouse in
France. New wider roads, extra canal systems and barges were developed to deliver the massive A380 parts. After assembly, the aircraft are flown to Hamburg to be furnished and painted. Final assembly began in 2004, with first aircraft (MSN001) displayed in January 2005.
Sixteen airlines have ordered the A380 as of
6 April 2006 including an order from
AIG's aircraft leasing unit,
ILFC. Currently, A380 orders stand at 168, including 27 freighter models.
Break-even is estimated to be at 250 to 300 units. Former Airbus CEO
Noël Forgeard stated he expects to sell 750 of the aircraft.
As of 2006, the unit cost of the A380 is
US$ 295 million.
[Airbus A380 News, URL accessed 11 June 2006] [Orders & Deliveries to 30 June ]Orders by chronology
Entries shaded in pink have been announced, but have not yet signed a firm contract.
Delivery
:
|
The A380 at the Paris Air Show 2005 |
Airbus has not publicly announced delivery dates, though they notified airlines in June 2005 that delivery would be delayed by up to six months, which meant
Singapore Airlines would receive the first A380 aircraft in the last quarter of 2006, with
Qantas getting its first delivery in April 2007 and
Emirates receiving aircraft before 2008.
A subsequent announcement in a June 2006 press release [
12] warned that the initial rate of deliveries would be slower than anticipated, leading to further delays for some airlines, although this would not affect the first production models, already built, flown and well into fitout. Delays in testing and certification of full passenger loads in flight mean that Singapore airlines will not receive its first A380 until the final few days of 2006 or very early in 2007.
Singapore Airlines will use the plane on its
Sydney and
Singapore routes from late 2006 in a 485 passenger configuration. Subsequent routes by Singapore Airlines may include the Singapore -
San Francisco route via
Hong Kong, as well as direct flights to
Paris and
Frankfurt.
Qantas has also announced it will use the A380 on its
Los Angeles to
Sydney to
Melbourne route in a 501 seat configuration.
Air France's order will arrive in 2007 and be used on the
Paris to
Montreal and
New York routes.
On
13 June 2006 Airbus announced in a
press release that the A380 delivery schedule will undergo an additional "shift of six to seven months due to production ramp up issues." Although the first aircraft will be delivered before the end of 2006, 2007 deliveries will be limited to only 9 aircraft. Overall the initial (pre-2005) plan was to deliver about 120 A380s by the end of 2009; this was reduced to around 90-100 by the first delay, and is now cut to a plan for roughly 70-80 deliveries by 2009. This caused a 26% drop in the share price of Airbus's parent,
EADS, as shareholders speculated on the financial burden this puts on the organization. [
13] It also affected the put valuation given to
BAE Systems' 20% share. [
14]
Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Qantas were reported to be angry at the delays and to be considering compensation.
["] However on
21 July 2006 Singapore Airlines ordered a further 9 A380s and stated that Airbus had
"demonstrated to our satisfaction that the engineering design for the A380 is sound [and that] it has performed well in flight and certification tests and the delays in its delivery have been caused more by production, rather than technical, issues." .
["] On
20 June and
21 June 2006,
Air Transport World reported Malaysia Airlines and ILFC were investigating cancelling their orders for the aircraft in the wake of the production delays.
["]["]Several technical concerns about the A380 have arisen, fuelling criticism of the aircraft and its safety. As
type certificate requirements for A380 are laid down by both
EASA and
FAA, Airbus has said that it will address these concerns as required.
Cabin pressurization
Joseph Mangan, a former employee of
TTTech, has claimed the microprocessors produced by TTTech for the A380 are severely flawed.
["A380 jet flawed, fired worker alleges." Pae, P. The Seattle Times. 2 October 2005.] The microchips control the A380's cabin-pressurization system; Mangan has stated that the combination of TTTech's microprocessor and a new architecture of valves could cause the A380 to undergo
rapid decompression. This sudden drop in cabin pressure could cause the flight crew to lose consciousness and pose a major hurdle to safe flight.
This allegation has been strongly rejected by both TTTech
["TTTech defends against false allegations. These allegations were made by a dismissed former employee one year ago and have been proved to be wrong." Official TTTech press release. 6 October 2005.] and EADS. Additionally, Boeing has said they are unaware of any problems with TTTech's chips.
["A Skeptic Under Pressure." Pae, P. The Los Angeles Times. September 27 2005.] An
Austrian court has fined Mr. Mangan for violating the court's preliminary injunction regarding discussion of his allegation pending court cases.
Ground operations
|
The A380's 20-wheel main landing gear |
Early critics claimed that the A380 would damage taxiways and other airport surfaces. However, the pressure exerted by its wheels is lower than that of a 747 because the A380 has more wheels than the 747 (22 wheels in the A380 compared to 18 wheels in the 747). Airbus tested this using a special ballasted rig, designed to replicate the landing gear of the A380. The rig, weighing 540 tonnes (595 short tons), was towed up and down at Airbus' facilities at Toulouse and after each pass the ground was carefully inspected.
As of late 2005 there are concerns that the
jet blast from the A380's engines could be dangerous to ground vehicles and airport terminal buildings, as more thrust is required to move its greater mass (590 t compared to 412.8 t for a 747). The American
FAA has established a commission
["Airbus A380 faces dispute with US aviation officials - report." Kjetland, R. Forbes. 5 October 2005.] to determine if new safety regulations seem necessary, and will make appropriate recommendations to the
ICAO. According to
The Wall Street Journal 'The debate is supposed to be entirely about safety, but industry officials and even some participants acknowledge that, at the very least, an overlay of diplomatic and trade tensions complicates matters.' The FAA commission has stated they will not enact
unilateral safeguards for the A380, only those imposed by the ICAO.
["FAA: Wake Turbulence Rules May Have To Be Rewritten." Aero-News.net. 7 October 2005.]Wake turbulence
All aircraft produce
wingtip vortices during flight, contributing to
wake turbulence, which are strongest during
flight envelopes involving high thrust, high
angles of attack, and under-clean configurations, such as departures. Many airliners already in service produce extremely large and powerful wakes, which are dangerous to lighter following aircraft.
Airspeed, weight, wingspan, and flap and gear deployment all affect the strength of these vortices, which is "proportional to aircraft weight and inversely to aircraft speed and wing span".
["Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Aviation, Range and Aerospace Meteorology, Hyannis, MA 2004." [mailto:rodc@ll.mit.edu Cole, R. E.] and Winkler, S. MIT Lincoln Laboratory.] Aircraft operating below 10,000 feet are limited to 460 km/h (250 knots), and until just before landing are in a clean configuration (flaps and gear retracted). Weight and wingspan are therefore the primary factors affecting vortex strength. The A380, at 560,000 kg, is 36% heavier than the 747-400ER's 412,000 kg
[747 specifications." Boeing Commercial Airplanes.], but its 79.8 m span is 24% wider than the 747ER's 64.4 m. At weights equal to the 747, the A380 will therefore produce weaker vortices. However, at Maximum Take-Off Weight, notwithstanding other aerodynamic improvements, which Airbus claims to have implemented
["Wake Vortices of the Airbus A380 and its effect on buildings in Neuenfelde and the vicinity of the Hamburg-Finkenwerder factory airfield." Die Arp-Schnitger-Orgel.], the turbulence will be stronger.
Modern aerodynamics can potentially reduce the effect. Research in the 1970s demonstrated that using wingtip vortex control concepts such as
winglets, while reducing cruise vortices and drag, did not have a significant effect on vortex strength during the landing phase. Though it is not clear whether wingtip fences were ever tested, this research (and more recent studies) did identify several promising alternatives.
["Concept to Reality: Wake-Vortex Hazard." Langevin, G. S. National Aeronautics & Space Administration. October 17, 2003.]In 2005 ICAO recommended that operational separation criteria for the A380 be substantially greater than for the 747 because "Flight test data has raised concerns about horizontal and vertical wake turbulence spacing criteria for approach, landing, departure and en route A380 operations." and "Analysis indicates that A380 wake vortices will descend further and be significantly stronger at 1,000 feet below the generation altitude than for other aircraft in the heavy wake turbulence category." Greater aircraft separation on
approach would reduce the frequency of aircraft landings, which would reduce the efficiency of the aircraft. Further flight testing will be required in order to determine whether the vortices produced are substantially larger than existing aircraft vortices.
Orders connected to non-aviation business
Following the tsunami disaster in December 2004, the
European Commission pressured
Thailand to maintain
Thai Airways International's order for six A380s, reportedly as part of a trade deal in exchange for
Thailand avoiding
EU fishing tariffs.
["Tsunami-hit Thais told: Buy six planes or face EU tariffs." Nelson, F. The Scotsman. 19 January 2005.]Wing strength
During the destructive wing strength certification test, the test wing of the A380 failed to meet the certification requirements.
The test wing buckled somewhere between the inboard and outboard engine at 147% of limit load. Limit load is the maximum load expected to occur during operations in the design life of an aircraft. For strength certification, an aircraft structure must not fail below 150% of limit load. This means that the test wing failed below its design load. Airbus initially indicated that the test article represented an early design and that the requirements would be met by analysis of results and changes already made. Subsequently, however, Airbus announced that modifications adding 30kg to the design would be made to the wing to provide the required strength.
* The fictional airplane (the
E-474) in the 2005 film
Flightplan clearly resembles an A380 as far as its general arrangement of full length upper and lower passenger decks and four turbofan engines. The name is obviously derived from the
Boeing 747.
* The A380 was nicknamed
"Megaliner" during early development within Airbus.
|
A size comparison between four of the largest aircraft. Click to enlarge. |
(800F Freighter in brown);General characteristics
*
Flight crew: 2
*
Capacity: 555 in 3 classes or 853 passengers in 1 class, with up to 66.4 tonnes (146,400 lb) of cargo in 38
LD3s or 13 pallets
**
152.4 tonnes (336,000 lb) of cargo (158 t option)*
Powerplant: 4×311 kN (70,000
lbf)
turbofans. Either
Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or
Engine Alliance GP7200 **
4×340 kN (76,500 lbf)
;Dimensions
* Length: 73 m (239 ft 6 in)
* Wingspan: 79.8 m (261 ft 10 in )
* Height: 24.1 m (79 ft 1 in )
* Wing area: 845 m² (9,100 ft²)
;Weights and fuel capacity
* Typical Operating Empty Weight: 276,800 kg (610,200 lb)
** 252,200 kg (556,000 lb)
* Maximum takeoff: 560,000 kg (1,235,000 lb)
** 590,000 kg (1,300,000 lb)
* Maximum fuel: 310,000 litres (81,890 US gal)
** 310,000 l (352,000 l option)
;Performance
* Normal cruise speed: 0.85 Mach (approx 1050 km/h, 647 mph, 562 kt)
* Maximum cruise speed: 0.89 Mach
* Range: 15,000 km (8,000 nmi)
** 10,400 km (5,600 nmi)
* Service ceiling: 13,100 m (43,000 ft)Gallery
| With the Red Arrows at Farnborough, 2006 |
| | Landing at Farnborough, 2006 |
| | Overflight showing gear deployment, Farnborough 2006 |
| | Airbus A380 F-WWOW (MSN 001) performing a display flight at Farnborough, 2006 |
| | Banked turn, Farnborough 2006 |
| | Take-off, Farnborough 2006 |
|
(1.58 Mb)
*A File illustrated on the A380
* File of Release devoted to the first flight of A380Videos
*A 380 video on flight
*First flight video (GFDL CC-BY-SA)
*RTÉ News report on the A380 reveal (REAL video)
*See clips of A380Technical data
*Technical file of the A380 from FlightGlobal (11.3 Mb)
