Emirates Airbus A380-861 Superjumbo on finals to London Heathrow Airport. SCO 7578
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world. Due to its size, many airports had to modify and improve facilities to accommodate it. Designed to challenge Boeing's monopoly in the large-aircraft market, the A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 and entered commercial service in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines. The aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX during much of its development, before receiving the A380 model number. The nickname Superjumbo has since become associated with it. The A380's upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, and its width is equivalent to that of a widebody aircraft. This allows for an A380-800's cabin with 478 square metres (5, sq ft) of floor space; 49% more floor space than the current next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400 with 321 square metres (3, sq ft), and provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in all-economy class configurations. The A380-800 has a design range of 15,200 km (8,200 nmi; 9,400 mi), sufficient to fly from New York to Hong Kong for example, and a cruising speed of Mach (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude). As of August 2011 there had been 236 firm orders for the A380, of which 54 had been delivered. The largest order, for 90 aircraft, was from Emirates. The A380 was used to demonstrate the viability of a synthetic fuel comprising standard jet fuel with a natural-gas-derived component. On 1 February 2008, a three hour test flight operated between Britain and France, with one of the A380's four engines using a mix of 60% standard jet kerosene and 40% gas to liquids (GTL) fuel supplied by Shell.
Size: 5672px × 4005px
Location: London Heathrow Airport, Borough of Hillingdon, England. United Kingdom.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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