Airbus A380 Superjumbo Twin-Deck, Twin-Aisle Airliner, Europe

The Airbus all new design Superjumbo, the A380, is the world's first twin-deck, twin-aisle airliner. Advantages of the A380 include lower fuel burn per seat and lower operating costs per seat.

The 555 seat Airbus A380-800, with a non-stop range of 8,000nm, was launched in December 2000. The aircraft entered production in January 2002. First flight (with the Rolls-Royce engines) took place from Blagnac Airport, Toulouse, in April 2005. Over 100 test flights were completed before its first commercial flight by Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Sydney took place on 25 October 2007.

Other test flights included one in October 2005, a third in November 2005, fourth in February 2006 and fifth in May 2006. One test aircraft took part in the flight display at the Farnborough International Airshow in July 2006.

The A380, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, received joint European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Type Certification on 12th December 2006. In March 2007, one A380 test aircraft flew to New York and one to Los Angeles, the first transatlantic flights of the A380.

The first A380 was delivered to Singapore Airlines (SIA) on 15 October 2007, and entered service on 25 October with a flight from Singapore to Sydney. SIA sold the tickets for the flight by online auction on eBay, the proceeds going to charity. A second A380 was delivered to SIA in January 2008 and a third in March 2008. SIA began scheduled A380 flights between Singapore and London on 18 March 2008.

A further 12 aircraft will be delivered in 2008, 21 in 2009 and with figures for 2010 still under consideration after news in May 2008 that Airbus has reduced its delivery schedule following a review of its delivery programme.

Airbus originally planned 13 aircraft for delivery in 2008 and 25 in 2009 after finding its ramp-up plans made in 2006 could not be achieved due to underestimates in the amount of time and resources required to make the jet.

The first flight with the General Electric / Pratt & Whitney Engine Alliance GP7200 was in August 2006 and the A380 powered by the GP7200 received FAA and EASA certification in December 2007. Launch customer for the A380 with this engine is Emirates with first delivery scheduled for July 2008. Emirates plans to launch the A380 on its Dubai to New York route in August 2008.

Assembly

Airbus Industrie is a consortium formed by EADS and BAE Systems. EADS, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, was formed by a merger of Aerospatiale-Matra of France, Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace of Germany and CASA of Spain (former members of Airbus). In October 2006, BAE Systems completed the sale of its shareholding to EADS, which is now the sole owner of Airbus.

Airbus's A380 aircraft sections will be transported from sites in Broughton (UK), Hamburg (Germany), Puerto Real (Spain) and St Nazaire (France) in a specially constructed huge roll-on / roll-off vessel, the "Ville de Bordeaux", built by Jinling Shipyard in Nanjing, China.

The vessel was launched in July 2003 and has the largest water stern door (22m x 14m) ever built on a ro-ro vessel. The vessel will take the components to Bordeaux. From there they will be transported via specially constructed barges up the Garonne River and then transferred by road trailer to the final assembly line in Toulouse. A second ro-ro vessel, the City of Hamburg, built at ST Marine in Singapore, is to be delivered by the end of 2008 and a third in early 2009.

A380 Orders

17 customers have announced firm orders for 196 A380 airliners, including: Singapore Airlines (launch customer with an order for 19 aircraft and five options), Lufthansa (15), Emirates (58), Air France (12), Qantas (20), British Airways (12 plus seven options), Malaysia Airlines (six), Virgin Atlantic (six) International Lease Finance (ten), Kingfisher Airlines (five), Qatar Airways (five), Korean Air (eight), Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad (MAS) (six), Thai Airways (six), Etihad Airways (four) and China Southern Airlines (five).

In June 2007, Air France ordered an additional two, Emirates an additional eight and Qatar Airways an additional three aircraft.

25 orders had been received for the cargo version but, in November 2006, Federal Express announced the cancellation of its order for 10 aircraft, citing delays in delivery dates as the cause and International Lease Finance has converted its order to the passenger version. In March 2007, UPS announced its intention to cancel the freighter order. Airbus has decided to halt the freighter programme until delays to the passenger version have been resolved.

In November 2007, the first order for the A380 Flying Palace, the VIP variant, was placed by HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud.

In February 2008, an Airbus A380 made the first flight of a commercial airliner powered by a liquid fuel processed from gas, GTL (Gas to Liquids), under the company’s alternative fuel research programme. One engine was fuelled with a blend of 40% GTL and standard jet fuel, the other three with standard fuel.

Flight deck

The A380 is a member of the Airbus Flight Operational Commonality family with similar flight decks and operating procedures in the A320, A330 and A340 aircraft, providing easy crew transition training, cross crew qualification and mixed fleet flying.

Thales Avionics developed and supplied the eight high-format, high-resolution, 150mm x 200mm (6in x 8in) liquid crystal displays and is to provide the digital Head-Up Display (HUD). Honeywell of the USA has been selected to provide the next-generation flight management system, which will have increased data handling speed and a graphical user interface with pop-up menus and cursor control, rather than a text-based interface. Honeywell will also supply the satellite communications system. Goodrich will supply air data systems.

Rockwell Collins will supply communications systems including VHF and HF radios and multi-mode receivers. Northrop Grumman has been selected to provide the LTN-101E inertial navigation system. Smiths Industries will provide the video management unit which will include the display from cockpit door and cabin surveillance systems. L-3 Aviation Recorders of Florida will provide flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

Construction

In order to minimise the unladen weight, the Airbus 380 structures incorporate a range of new materials as used on the A318 and A340 families of aircraft. Carbon fibre reinforced plastic is used for the central box of the wings, the horizontal stabilisers (which are the same size as the Airbus A310 wing), the fin, the rear fuselage section and for ceiling beams.

A new material, Glare, that is highly resistant to fatigue is used in the construction of the panels for the upper fuselage. The aluminium and fibreglass layers of Glare do not allow propagation of cracks, it is much lighter than conventional materials and represents a weight saving of about 500kg in the construction. Impact resistant thermoplastics are used on the wing leading edge. The aircraft has 16 wing spoilers supplied by Patria of Finland.

The A380 incorporates two rather than three Eaton Corporation hydraulic systems with an increased hydraulic pressure of 5,000lb/in² instead of a standard 3,000psi.

Upper and lower decks

The A380 has twin-aisle cabins on the upper and lower decks, with 49% more floor space for 35% higher seating capacity. A three-class layout provides 555 seats. A typical upper deck layout provides 96 business- and 103 economy-class seats. The main deck provides 22 first-class seats and 334 economy-class seats.

Two stairwells link the passenger decks. A lifting system between passenger decks provides access for passengers with limited mobility. There is also a cargo hoist linking the two passenger decks.

The size of the A380 makes possible a number of configurations and passenger facilities. Singapore Airlines (launch customer) has a configuration for 471 passengers – 12 first class 'suites' and 311 economy seats on the main deck, 60 business class seat and 88 economy seats on the upper deck.

There are eight full-size doors on either side of the aircraft. On both sides, there are two doors on the main deck and one door on the upper deck forward of the wing that can be used simultaneously for embarking or disembarking passengers.

For speedy baggage transfer, two hold loading belts, one at the forward end and one at the rear end under the fuselage can be used simultaneously.

Matsushita Avionics Systems has been selected to supply its next-generation eX2 inflight entertainment system.

Engines

The aircraft is equipped with four 70,000lb thrust engines, either the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or the General Electric / Pratt & Whitney Engine Alliance GP7200. Rolls-Royce delivered the first Trent 900 engine in February 2004 and it made a successful first flight on an A340-300 testbed in May 2004. The GP7200 is scheduled to make its first testbed flight by the end of 2004.

Goodrich will supply the engine sensor system for the Trent 900 and Ametek the senor system for the GP7200. BAE Systems Controls and Hispano-Suiza will provide the FADEC (full authority digital electronic control) system for the GP7200.

The take-off length is 2,900m at maximum weight at sea level, ISA +15° conditions and the initial cruise altitude 35,000ft. The aircraft complies with the noise emission limits of ICAO (Chapter 3, Schedule 16) for overfly, approach and side-on manoeuvres and stricter regulations of London Heathrow airport concerning take-off and landing. This enables aircraft operations at night.

There are ten fuel tanks with a capacity of 131,000l of fuel. Refuelling can be carried out in 40 minutes.

Landing gear

The 22-wheel Goodrich landing gear consists of two underwing struts each with four wheels, two central under-fuselage struts each with six wheels and a twin nose wheel. Each landing gear supports about 167t. Messier-Dowty supplies the nose landing gear with 350bar hydraulic pressure and Messier-Bugatti the braking and steering systems. Smiths Aerospace will supply the landing gear extension and retraction system. The load on the airport runways and aprons are of similar magnitude to that of a 747. ELDEC of Lynnwood, Washington, will provide the landing gear proximity sensing system.

The aircraft can complete a 180° turn within a width of 56.5m, which is within the 60m width dimension of standard runways.

Performance

Maximum operating speed is Mach 0.89 and the range is 15,000km or 8,000nm with the maximum number of passengers.

The turnaround time at the airport terminal, including passenger disembarking, cleaning, restocking and embarking the passengers for the next flight is a minimum of 90 minutes.

A380-800F freighter version

The A380 is the first major commercial airliner programme with a freighter version being co-developed as part of the new aircraft launch. The A380-800F will transport 150t of freight using standard, interlineable containers and pallets. The full payload range of the A380-800 F is 5,600nm. Launch customers are FedEx (ten aircraft) and Emirates (two) and first deliveries are scheduled for 2008.

Other probable derivatives of the A380 are an extended range version, A380-800R and a stretched version A380-900.