Introduction:

Manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company), the Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner. During much of the development phase this aircraft was known as Airbus A3XX and since then, was nick-named as SuperJumbo. Its upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, and its width is comparable to that of a wide body aircraft. It provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in all economy class configurations. The A3XX design converged on a double-decker layout that provided more passenger volume than a traditional single-deck design. The A380-800, the passenger model, is the largest passenger airliner in the world and The A380-800F, the freighter model, was offered as one of the largest freight aircraft, with the second highest payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225.

Production:

Major structural sections of the A380 are built across France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Due to their size, they are brought to the assembly hall in Toulouse in France. Components of the A380 are provided by suppliers from around the world; they are:
• Rolls-Royce
• SAFRAN
• United Technologies
• General Electric
• Goodrich
The front and rear sections of the fuselage are made in Hamburg in northern Germany, from where they are shipped to United Kingdom. The wings are manufactured in Bristol and Broughton in North Wales. The belly and tail sections are made in southern Spain. These parts are then delivered to Toulouse in France. Post assembly, aircraft is flown to Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport to be furnished and painted.

Entering Services:

The first aircraft was handed over to Singapore airlines on 15th October 2007 with an introductory flight between Singapore and Sydney. Two months later Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choong Seng declared that the A380 was performing superior and was flaming 20% less fuel per passenger than the airline's existing 747-400 fleet. Emirates was the second airline to take delivery of the A380 on 28 July 2008 and started flights between Dubai and New York on 1st August 2008. Qantas followed starting flights between Melbourne and Los Angeles on 20 October 2008. By the end of 2008, 890,000 passengers had flown on 2,200 A380 flights totaling 21,000 hours. May 2009 brought the news that A380 has carried 1.5 million passengers during 41 thousand flight hours and 4200 flights.

Design:

The A380-800 was initially planned to carry 555 passengers in a three-class configuration or 853 passengers in a single-class economy configuration. The design range for the model is 15,200 km. The second model, the A380-800F freighter, will carry 150 tones of cargo 10,400 km. The A380's wing is sized for a Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW) over 650 tones in order to have room for these future versions, albeit with a little intensification required. The stronger wing (and structure) is used on the A380-800F freighter. This general design approach sacrifices a little fuel competence on the A380-800 passenger model, but Airbus estimates it will provide lower operating costs per passenger than all current variants of Boeing 747.

Flight Deck:

The A380 features an enhanced glass cockpit, and fly-by-wire flight controls allied to side-sticks. The superior cockpit displays attribute eight 15 cm × 20 cm (5.9 in × 7.9 in) liquid crystal displays, all of which are physically indistinguishable and transposable. These encompass two Primary Flight Displays, two navigation displays, one engine parameter display, one system display and two Multi-Function Displays. These MFDs are fresh with the A380, and provide an easy-to-use interface to the flight management system—replacing three multifunction control and display units. They consist of QWERTY keyboards and trackballs, interfacing with a graphical "point-and-click" display navigation system. One or two HUDs (Heads up Displays) are voluntary.

Engines:

The A380 can be fitted with two types of engines: A380-841, A380-842 and A380-843F with Rolls-Royce Trent 900, and the A380-861 and A380-863F with Engine Alliance GP7000 turbofans. Only two of the four engines are fitted with thrust reversers.

Noise reduction was an important requirement in the A380's design, and particularly affects engine design. Both engine types allow the aircraft to achieve QC/2 departure and QC/0.5 arrival noise limits under the Quota Count system set by London Heathrow Airport, which is a key destination for the A380.

Material Used:

While the majority of the fuselage is aluminum, by weight composite materials comprise 25% of the A380's airframe. Carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, glass-fiber reinforced plastic and quartz-fiber reinforced plastic are used extensively in wings, fuselage sections, tail surfaces, and doors. The A380 is the earliest commercial airliner to have a central wing box made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic. It is also the foremost to have a smoothly contoured wing cross section. The wings of other commercial airliners are partitioned span-wise into sections. This flowing, continuous cross section optimizes aerodynamic efficiency. Thermoplastics are used in the leading edges of the slats. The new material GLARE (Glass Reinforced fiber metal laminate) is used in the upper fuselage and on the stabilizers' leading edges. This aluminum-glass-fiber laminate is lighter and has improved corrosion and impact resistance than conventional aluminum alloys used in aviation. Unlike earlier composite materials, it can be repaired using conventional aluminum repair techniques. Newer weld-able aluminum alloys are also used. This enables the extensive use of laser beam welding manufacturing techniques — eliminating rows of rivets and resulting in a lighter, stronger structure.

Avionics Architecture:

The A380 employs Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architecture, first used in advanced military aircraft such as the F-22 Raptor, Eurofighter Typhoon, or Dassault Rafale. It is based on a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) design, using the Integrity-178B Operating System. Previously dedicated single-purpose avionics computers are replaced by dedicated software housed in onboard processor modules and servers. This cuts the number of parts, provides increased flexibility without resorting to customized avionics, and reduces costs by using commercially available computing power.

Together with IMA, the A380 avionics are highly networked. The network pattern used reduces the wiring required and minimizes latency. The Network Systems Server (NSS) is the heart of A380 paperless cockpit. It eliminates the massive manuals and charts usually carried by pilots. The NSS has sufficient inbuilt robustness to eradicate onboard backup paper documents. The A380's network and server system stores data and offers electronic documentation, providing required equipment list, navigation charts, performance calculations, and an aircraft logbook. All are available to the pilot from two supplementary 27 cm (11 in) diagonal LCDs, each controlled by its own keyboard and control cursor device mounted in the foldable table in front of each pilot.

Passenger Provisions:

The A380 produces 50% less cabin noise than a 747 and has greater cabin air pressure; both features are expected to reduce the effects of travel fatigue. The upper and lower decks are connected by two stairways, fore and aft, wide enough to accommodate two passengers side-by-side. In a 555-passenger configuration, the A380 has 33% more seats than a 747-400 in a standard three-class configuration but 50% more cabin area and volume, resulting in more space per passenger. Its utmost certified carrying capacity is 853 passengers in an all-economy-class configuration. The two full-length decks and wide stairways permit multiple seat configurations of the Airbus A380. The announced configurations go from 450 (Qantas) up to 644 passengers (Emirates two-class configuration).
Compared to a 747, the A380 has larger windows and overhead bins, and 60 cm (2.0 ft) of extra headroom. The wider cabin allows for up to 48 cm (19 in) wide economy seats at a 10 abreast configuration on the main deck, while 10 abreast seating on the 747 has a seat width of only 44.5 cm (17.5 in) (seat pitch varies by airline).
Airbus' initial publicity stressed the comfort and space of the A380's cabin, anticipating installations such as relaxation areas, bars, duty-free shops, and beauty salons. Virgin Atlantic Airways already offers a bar as part of its "Upper Class" service on its A340 and 747 aircraft, and has announced plans to include casinos, double beds, and gymnasiums on its A380s. Singapore Airlines offers twelve partly-enclosed first-class suites (open at top) on its A380, each with one full and one secondary seat, full-sized bed, desk, personal storage. Four of these suites (C and D on rows 3 and 4) have dividing walls that can be removed to create two "double" suites with two beds modified into one double bed. Qantas Airways have shown their product which features a long flat-bed that converts from the seat but does not have privacy doors. Emirates’ fourteen first-class private suites have shared access to two "shower spas". First and business class passengers have shared access to a snack bar and lounge with two sofas, in addition to a first-class-only private lounge.

A-380F (Freighter):

The Airbus A380F is a three-deck, long range freighter proficient of carrying payloads of 150-ton over non-stop ranges of up to 10,400 km with the lowest unit cost of any freighter ever. The aircraft’s extraordinary layout will bring new efficiency standards to the cargo aircraft market. The A380F three decks can be filled with standard pallets and simultaneously accessible through five doors. These features and its rising potential make A380F well suited to high demand global supply chain management network.

As of 2004, Emirates (June 2003, 4 aircraft) and FedEx (March 2003, 10 aircraft) as launch customer had ordered the Airbus A380-800F freighter. On 11 January 2005, Georgia-based (USA) UPS Company agreed to purchase 10 Airbus A380 freighters with options for an additional 10. UPS would see the first aircraft delivery in 2009 and will continue through 2012. The engine to power these aircraft was not disclosed following the order announcement. The final contract between Airbus and UPS was signed in December 2005.

General dimensions:

• Wingspan 79.8 m (261’ 10”)
• Length 73 m (239’ 6”)
• Height 24.1 m (79’ 1”)

Freight deck/cabin dimensions:

• Length 50.68 m (166’ 3”)
• Max width 7.14 m (23’ 5”)
• Volume 3 620 m3 (127 839 ft3)

Weights:

• EOW 252 000 kg (555 560 lb)
• MZF 402 000 kg (886 258 lb)
• MTOW 590 000 kg (1 300 725 lb)
• MLW 427 000 kg (941 370 lb)