Airbus A380

The Airbus A380 (also called "Super-jumbo-jet") is a four-engined, double-decked airliner manufactured by Airbus. It is the world's biggest passenger airplane,[1] larger than the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet. However, the six-engine Antonov An-225 super-freighter was even bigger.

Airbus A380
Singapore Airlines Airbus A380
Role Wide-Body Double-Deck Jet airliner
National origin Multi-country origin
Manufacturer Airbus
First flight 27 April 2005
Introduction 25 October 2007
Status No longer produced but used by airlines
Primary users Singapore Airlines
Emirates
Qantas
Lufthansa
Produced 2004-2021
Number built 272 (March 2021)
Unit cost US$350M
A Lufthansa A380 with a Boeing 747
The Airbus A380 prototype lands in France.

The Airbus A380 can carry up to 850 passengers (but it usually carries about 525), and weighs over 550 tonnes.[2] It has four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines or four Engine Alliance GP7000 engines. The companies General Electric and Pratt & Whitney make alliance engines. The last A380 was produced in 2021 and delivered to Emirates. [3]

Orders

 
A Qantas Airbus A380 at Melbourne Airport

Hundreds of A380-800 airplanes have been ordered by 20 airlines. One has been ordered by a Saudi Arabian Prince, Al-Walid bin Talal and 10 by a company called ILFC (who gives other airlines airplanes for rent).

Emirates Airlines (an airline from the United Arab Emirates) has the most A380 aircraft, because they have ordered 123 aircraft. [4] Singapore Airlines took delivery of the first A380, which flew to Sydney in Australia on October 25, 2007. Singapore Airlines has 19 A380s.[5]

Other airlines which ordered the A380 are:

More than 200 A380 have been delivered, including 15 in 2017 and 12 in 2018.

Freighter Version

Airbus was going to make a version of the A380 to carry cargo instead of people. This would look almost the same as the normal passenger version, but with no windows and much bigger doors. Some cargo companies ordered the plane, like FedEx and UPS. Because Airbus took too long to make the A380 freight version, those orders were canceled.[7] Because Airbus has not gotten any orders for the plane anymore, they decided to not make the freighter version for a while and focus on making the passenger version of the A380.

Incidents

The Airbus A380 had 1 incident, with no deaths.

  • On 4 November 2010, Qantas Flight 32 was flying from Singapore Changi Airport when the number 2 engine failed, causing some damage to the plane, and forcing it to return to Singapore. Nobody was injured, but debris from the airplane fell onto the island of Batam, in Indonesia. Investigations found that the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine leaked oil, causing an explosion.[8] Other Trent 900 engines had similar problems and many engines had to be replaced and the FAA issued that all Airbus A380s currently in service are required to go under mandatory inspections before takeoff to prevent future engine problems.[9]

Airbus A380 Media

References

  1. "Timeline - Airbus A380 'superjumbo'". BBC News. 2006-10-26. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
  2. "Specifications Airbus A380". Airbus. Archived from the original on 2010-05-04. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
  3. CNN, Jacopo Prisco. "Why the A380 superjumbo is staging a comeback". CNN. Retrieved 2022-12-15. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  4. "Orders and deliveries". Airbus. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  5. "Our Fleet".Singapore Airlines.Retrieved December 18, 2013.
  6. "Airbus A380 Operators". Planespotters.net Just Aviation. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
  7. "Airbus freighter woes hit EADS". BBC News. 2007-03-02. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
  8. http://www.aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20101104-1 Archived 2014-08-21 at the Wayback Machine "ASN Aircraft Accident Airbus A380-842 VH-OQA Batam Island"
  9. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/nov/18/qantas-replaces-rolls-royce-engines"Qantas to replace half of its Rolls-Royce A380 superjumbo engines"

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