The Airbus A380 is a double-deck,
wide-body, four-engine airliner manufactured by the European corporation
Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. Designed to challenge Boeing's monopoly
in the large-aircraft market, the A380, the largest passenger airliner
in the world, made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse,
France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from
Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines. The aircraft was known as
the Airbus A3XX during much of its development phase, but 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 5,146
square feet (478.1 m2) of floor space; 49% more floor space than the
current next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400 with 3,453 square feet
(320.8 m2), 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 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising
altitude).
As of May 2011, 234 firm orders
have been placed, of which 49 had been delivered. The largest order came
from Emirates, which has 90 aircraft on order.
Major structural sections of the
A380 are built in France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Due
to their size, they are brought to the assembly hall (the Jean-Luc
Lagardère Plant) in Toulouse in France by surface transportation, though
some parts are moved by the A300-600ST Beluga aircraft used in the
construction of other Airbus models. Components of the A380 are provided
by suppliers from around the world; the five largest contributors, by
value, are Rolls-Royce, Safran, United Technologies, General Electric
and Goodrich.
For the surface movement of
large A380 structural components, a complex route known as the
Itinéraire à Grand Gabarit was developed. This involved the construction
of a fleet of roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ships and barges, the
construction of port facilities and the development of new and modified
roads to accommodate oversized road convoys.
The front and rear sections of
the fuselage are loaded onto one of three roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ships
in Hamburg in northern Germany, from where they are shipped to the
United Kingdom. The 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 Cádiz in southern Spain, and delivers
them to Bordeaux. From there, the A380 parts are transported by barge to
Langon, and by oversize road convoys to the assembly hall in Toulouse.
After assembly, the aircraft are
flown to Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (XFW) to be furnished and
painted. It takes 3,600 L (950 US gal) of paint to cover the 3,100 m2
(33,000 sq ft) exterior of an A380. Airbus sized the production
facilities and supply chain for a production rate of four A380s per
month.
Five A380s were built for
testing and demonstration purposes. The first A380, serial number MSN001
and registration F-WWOW, was unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse on 18
January 2005. Its maiden flight took place at 8:29 UTC (10:29 am local
time) 27 April 2005. This plane, equipped with Trent 900 engines, flew
from Toulouse Blagnac International Airport with a flight crew of six
headed by chief test pilot Jacques Rosay. After successfully landing
three hours and 54 minutes later, Rosay said flying the A380 had been
“like handling a bicycle” .
On 1 December 2005 the A380
achieved its maximum design speed of Mach 0.96 (versus typical cruising
speed of Mach 0.85), in a shallow dive, completing the opening of the
flight envelope. In 2006, the A380 flew its first high altitude test at
Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa. It conducted its second high
altitude test at the same airport in 2009. It arrived in North America
on 6 February 2006, landing in Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada for
cold-weather testing.
On 14 February 2006, during the
destructive wing strength certification test on MSN5000, the test wing
of the A380 failed at 145% of the limit load, short of the required 150%
to meet the certification. Airbus announced modifications adding 30 kg
to the wing to provide the required strength. On 26 March 2006 the A380
underwent evacuation certification in Hamburg. With 8 of the 16 exits
blocked, 853 passengers and 20 crew left the aircraft in 78 seconds,
less than the 90 seconds required by certification standards. Three days
later, the A380 received European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and
United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to carry up
to 853 passengers.
The maiden flight of the first
A380 using GP7200 engines—serial number MSN009 and registration
F-WWEA—took place on 25 August 2006. On 4 September 2006, the first full
passenger-carrying flight test took place. The aircraft flew from
Toulouse with 474 Airbus employees on board, in the first of a series of
flights to test passenger facilities and comfort. In November 2006 a
further series of route proving flights took place to demonstrate the
aircraft's performance for 150 flight hours under typical airline
operating conditions.
Airbus obtained type
certificates for the A380-841 and A380-842 model from the EASA and FAA
on 12 December 2006 in a joint ceremony at the company's French
headquarters. The A380-861 model obtained the type certificate 14
December 2007.
The first aircraft delivered
(MSN003, registered 9V-SKA) was handed over to Singapore Airlines on 15
October 2007 and entered into service on 25 October 2007 with an
inaugural flight between Singapore and Sydney (flight number SQ380).
Passengers bought seats in a charity online auction paying between $560
and $100,380. Two months later, Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choong Seng
said that the A380 was performing better than both the airline and
Airbus had anticipated, burning 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 1 August 2008. Qantas followed on 19 September
2008, 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 totalling 21,000 hours.
In February 2009 the millionth
A380 passenger flying with Singapore Airlines was recorded. In May 2009
it was reported that the A380 had carried 1.5 million passengers during
41 thousand flight hours and 4200 flights. Air France received their
first A380 on 30 October 2009, arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Lufthansa received its first A380 on 19 May 2010. By July 2010 the 31
A380s then in service had flown 156,000 hours with passengers in 17,000
flights, transporting 6,000,000 passengers between 20 international
destinations.
Airbus used similar cockpit
layout, procedures and handling characteristics 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
(5.9-by-7.9 in) liquid crystal displays, all of which are physically
identical and interchangeable; comprising 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
system—replacing three multifunction control and display units. They
include QWERTY keyboards and trackballs, interfacing with a graphical
"point-and-click" display navigation system.
The A380 can be fitted with two
types of engines: A380-841, −842 and −843F with Rolls-Royce Trent 900,
and A380-861 and −863F with Engine Alliance GP7000 turbofans. The Trent
900 is a derivative of the Trent 800, and the GP7000 has roots from the
GE90 and PW4000. The Trent 900 core is a scaled version of the Trent
500, but incorporates the swept fan technology of the stillborn Trent
8104. The GP7200 has a GE90-derived core and PW4090-derived fan and
low-pressure turbo-machinery. 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.
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. The aircraft needed no modification to use
the GTL fuel, which was designed to be mixed with normal jet fuel.
Sebastien Remy, head of Airbus SAS's alternative fuel programme, said
the GTL used was no cleaner in CO2 terms than standard fuel but it had
local air quality benefits because it contains no sulphur.
While most of the fuselage is
aluminium, composite materials comprise more than 20% of the A380's
airframe. Carbon-fibre reinforced plastic, glass-fibre reinforced
plastic and quartz-fibre reinforced plastic are used extensively in
wings, fuselage sections (such as the undercarriage and rear end of
fuselage), tail surfaces, and doors. The A380 is the first commercial
airliner to have a central wing box made of carbon fibre reinforced
plastic. It is also the first 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
optimises aerodynamic efficiency. 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 stabilisers'
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. Newer weldable
aluminium alloys are also used. This enables the widespread use of laser
beam welding manufacturing techniques — eliminating rows of rivets and
resulting in a lighter, stronger structure.
The A380 uses four 150 kVA
variable-frequency electrical generators, eliminating constant speed
drives and improving reliability. The A380 uses aluminium power cables
instead of copper for weight reduction. The electrical power system is
fully computerised 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 creating a cabin ambience simulating
daylight, night, or levels in between. On the outside of the aircraft,
HID lighting is used for brighter, whiter illumination.
The A380 was initially planned
without thrust reversers, as Airbus designed the aircraft with ample
braking capacity to not require their use. However Airbus elected to fit
the two inboard engines with thrust reversers in a late stage of
development. The two outboard engines do not have reversers, reducing
the amount of debris stirred up during landing. The A380 features
electrically actuated thrust reversers, giving them better reliability
than their pneumatic or hydraulic equivalents, in addition to saving
weight.
Onboard features expected to
reduce travel fatigue include a quieter interior and greater cabin air
pressure than prior aircraft; the A380 produces 50% less cabin noise
than the 747-400 and is pressurised to the equivalent of 1,520 m (5,000
ft) altitude versus 2,440 m (8,000 ft) on the 747-400. The A380 has 50%
more cabin area and volume, larger windows, bigger overhead bins, and 60
cm (2.0 ft) extra headroom versus the 747-400. Seating options range
from 4-abreast in first class up to 11-across in economy. In an industry
where economy seats range from 41.5 cm (16.3 in) to 52.3 cm (20.6 in)
in width, A380 economy seats are up to 48 cm (19 in) wide in a
10-abreast configuration on the main deck. The 10-abreast configuration
on the 747-400 typically results in seats 44.5 cm (17.5 in) wide.
The A380's full-length upper and
lower decks are connected by two stairways, fore and aft, wide enough
to accommodate two passengers side-by-side; this cabin arrangement
allows multiple seat configurations. The maximum certified carrying
capacity is 853 passengers in an all-economy-class layout, and Airbus
lists the typical three-class layout as accommodating 525 passengers,
with 10 first, 76 business, and 439 economy class seats. Planned and
announced configurations go from 407 passengers, for Korean Air, up to
840 passengers, for Air Austral.
Airbus's initial publicity
stressed the comfort and space of the A380's cabin, and advertised the
installation of relaxation areas such as bars, beauty salons, duty-free
shops, and restaurants. Proposed amenities resembled those installed on
earlier airliners, particularly 1970s wide-body jets, which largely gave
way to regular seats for more passenger capacity. Airbus later
acknowledged that some publicised cabin proposals were unlikely to be
installed, and noted that it was ultimately up to the airlines to
configure the interior. Industry analysts suggested that the
customisation options on the planes slowed down production speeds and
raised costs. Due to delivery delays, Singapore Airlines and Air France
debuted new seat designs on different aircraft before their installation
on the A380.
Initial operators typically
configured their A380s for three-class service, while adding extra
features for passengers in premium cabins. Launch customer Singapore
Airlines debuted partly-enclosed first class suites on its A380s in
2007, each featuring a leather seat with a separate bed; center suites
could to be joined to create a double bed. A year later, Qantas debuted a
new first class seat-bed and a sofa lounge at the front of the upper
deck on its A380s. In late 2008, Emirates introduced "shower spas" in
first class on its A380s, along with a bar lounge and seating area on
the upper deck, and in 2009 Air France unveiled an upper deck electronic
art gallery. In addition to lounge areas, some A380 operators have
installed amenities consistent with other aircraft in their respective
fleets, including self-serve snack bars, premium economy sections, and
redesigned business class seating.
No comments:
Post a Comment