The Last A380

A magnificent beast made of four million parts from 30 different countries, the Airbus A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner, and its era is almost at an end. The initial assembly has recently been completed on the last ever superjumbo, after it was announced in 2019 that the European airplane manufacturers were discontinuing the plane.

Initial assembly of the final double-decker jet, serial number 272, has been completed, with manufacturing station 40 now out of work. It's now off to station 30, where, Airbus media relations manager Anne Galabert tells CNN Travel, the engines will be installed and tests carried out on electrical and hydraulic systems, on-board computers, landing gear, and moving parts. After engine tests are performed, the aircraft will make its first test flight to Hamburg, Germany, where the cabin will be installed, fitted out and the plane painted in the customer's livery: Emirates Airlines.

The last convoy to the Final Assembly Line (FAL) took place in February this year, with hundreds turning out in the French village of Levignac to see the wings, fuselage sections, and horizontal tailplane transported by truck.

Putting together the A380 is a gargantuan task, with 1,500 companies involved in manufacturing all the individual parts, from rivets to bolts, to seats and engines.

Fuselage sections came from Hamburg, Germany, and Saint-Nazaire, France; the horizontal tailplane was manufactured in Cadiz, Spain; and the vertical tail fin was also made in Hamburg. The parts' pilgrimage to France was made by road, sea, and air.

And on a side note.. I found this to be comical :)

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Originally Posted by Phillbo

And on a side note.. I found this to be comical :)

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Yup, it is!

The liquor store I do business with has had an over life size statue of Captain Morgan for a long time. He is now wearing a mask.

I have never flown on the A380 but I was lucky enough to be able to walk through one of them. It is clearly a Marvel of human ability to build fantastic machines. I want to fly on one but I'm not going to fly to the places they fly.

As I recall, Airbus used the Super Guppy which I've written of before to transport parts for their aircraft until they developed their own outsized carrier...:bigboy:...Ben

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All the airports who reconfigured to handle the A380 are certainly feeling as if they have been had. I can't even make a good guess at the cost to reconfigure gates to accept these planes---including 4 jetways at 2 different levels. In accounting terms those will be classified as stranded costs:shrug:

The Airbus facility at Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (which is private to Airbus) is on what was formally an island in the Elbe River and not only provides a runway sufficient to handle the Beluga but also has piers to load and off load ship(s) that were built especially to transport components of the A380. The island is no more, they had to extend the runway and filled in the gap between the island and the mainland.

How much bigger was the 380 than the 747?

The difference was most notable in the height of 80' versus 63' for the 747. Having had to go down the slides of a 747 one time in France I can attest to the height :omfg:
While the early 747's commonly had double deck seating the access to the top deck (which was a partial deck)was via a spiral staircase. There was also a configuration which had a bar and lounge on the top deck---I think it might have been Pan AM. The A380 had a full second deck which required access by jetways and the existing jetways at the time were unable to reach that high. Schiphol, in Amsterdam, may have had more of those gates than any other airport that I was in---and I never once saw one at a gate.
The seating capacity of the A380 was 489-615. The 747, 416-660(if all economy). I have to admit to being partial to the 747---my overall all time favorite plane.

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Originally Posted by Honda

I have never flown on the A380 but I was lucky enough to be able to walk through one of them. It is clearly a Marvel of human ability to build fantastic machines. I want to fly on one but I'm not going to fly to the places they fly.

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I've got 5 hours in the simulator for the A380 thanks to my Brother in Law who is a flight instructor training foreign pilot on the air frame.... So far i have lost an engine on take off, had a tail strike in a snow storm with 65knot cross winds and been bored to tears while the computer flies the planned route... All the work is done up front prior to pulling away from the gate.

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Originally Posted by Phillbo

I've got 5 hours in the simulator for the A380 thanks to my Brother in Law who is a flight instructor training foreign pilot on the air frame.... So far i have lost an engine on take off, had a tail strike in a snow storm with 65knot cross winds and been bored to tears while the computer flies the planned route... All the work is done up front prior to pulling away from the gate.

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Lucky guy :clap: That is very cool :getdown:

All that and nurse Paula too :bowdown:

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Originally Posted by Phillbo

I've got 5 hours in the simulator for the A380 thanks to my Brother in Law who is a flight instructor training foreign pilot on the air frame.... So far i have lost an engine on take off, had a tail strike in a snow storm with 65knot cross winds and been bored to tears while the computer flies the planned route... All the work is done up front prior to pulling away from the gate.

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That would be a dream for me. The closest I can get is Microsoft Flight Simulator.

I like my planes made in America.

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Originally Posted by Dave Grubb

The difference was most notable in the height of 80' versus 63' for the 747. Having had to go down the slides of a 747 one time in France I can attest to the height :omfg:
While the early 747's commonly had double deck seating the access to the top deck (which was a partial deck)was via a spiral staircase. There was also a configuration which had a bar and lounge on the top deck---I think it might have been Pan AM. The A380 had a full second deck which required access by jetways and the existing jetways at the time were unable to reach that high. Schiphol, in Amsterdam, may have had more of those gates than any other airport that I was in---and I never once saw one at a gate.
The seating capacity of the A380 was 489-615. The 747, 416-660(if all economy). I have to admit to being partial to the 747---my overall all time favorite plane.

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I only rode in a 747 once, from NYC to Paris. I did not appreciate the airplane. It took an interminably long time to load the thing, and this being back in the day, when the smoking light finally came on the smokers were so fagged out for a fag that every damned one of them lit up simultaneously. I thought the thing was on fire. As it was, I needed a respiratory therapist. There hasn’t been any smoking on commercial airlines in this country’s planes in decades, yet I still remember the inconvenience of the long loading times and consequences vividly.

My only overseas flights were on Trans-Caribbean Airways stretch 8's and once on a C-141...Of the two, I'll take the 12 day military ride any day over 12 hours trapped with over 300 other GI's and their screaming, smelly families and only two restrooms...:frustrated:...Ben

My return to the US was on a plane---I haven't a clue what kind or who owned it. All I knew was it was headed east and I didn't have bunk---something I did have when my travel was headed west---for 28 days. I wanted no part of another "cruise" and paid off a shipping clerk to get me on a flight. There was no dependents on my flight.

I do remember stopping in Japan for fuel, followed by a very bad storm and heavy turbulence. At one point I had a 1/2 cup of coffee in my hand, resting on the drop down table when the plane went into a pure vertical drop. As I looked at my coffee it came up out of the cup---retaining the shape of the cup and then just as quickly went back into the cup :jawdrop:

There was nothing about that trip that was going to cause bad memories----cause I knew that within one day---yes sir---one day---I would be returned to civilian life
:pimpgrin:

I was about to walk out of the Oakland Army Terminal a MR:fweet::fweet: