The Last A380

[Phillbo]

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.

[Phillbo]

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

[Mike]

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

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.

[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.

[Truckman]

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......Ben

[Dave Grubb]

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

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.

[Phillbo]

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.

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.

[Dave Grubb]

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.

Lucky guy That is very cool

All that and nurse Paula too

[Honda]

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.

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