♥ Monday, June 22
Airbus A380
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS.
The largest passenger airliner in the world, the A380 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 a cabin with 50% more floor space than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400, 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, the passenger model, is the largest passenger airliner in the world, but has a shorter fuselage than the Airbus A340-600, which is Airbus's next-biggest passenger aeroplane. The A380-800F, the freighter model, was offered as one of the largest freight aircraft, with a listed payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225. The design and production of the freighter was pushed back, orders actually cancelled. The A380-800 has a design range of 15,200 km (8,200 nmi), sufficient to fly from Boston to Hong Kong for example, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude). It is the first commercial jet capable of using GTL-based fuel.
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).
While most of the fuselage is aluminium, by weight composite materials comprise 25% of the A380's airframe. Carbon-fibre reinforced plastic, glass-fibre reinforced plastic and quartz-fibr 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 stabilizers' 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.MeasurementA380-800
A380-800F
Cockpit crew
Two
Seating capacity525 (3-class)644 (2-class)853 (1-class)
12 couriers
Length73 m (240 ft)
Span79.8 m (262 ft)
Height
24.1 m (79 ft)
Wheelbase
30.4 m (100 ft)
Outside fuselage width
7.14 m (23.4 ft)
Cabin width6.58 m (21.6 ft) for Main deck5.92 m (19.4 ft) for Upper deck
Wing area845 m2 (9,100 sq ft)
Wing sweep33.5°
Maximum take-off weight
560,000 kg (1,200,000 lb)
590,000 kg (1,300,000 lb)
Maximum operating speedat cruise altitudeMach 0.89(945 km/h, 587 mph, 510 knots)
Maximum speed
Mach 0.96at cruise altitude: 1020 km/h, 634 mph, 551 knots)
Take off run at MTOW2,750 m (9,000 ft)
[92]2,900 m (9,500 ft)
[92]Maximum fuel capacity
310,000 l(81,890 US gal, 68,200 imp gal)
310,000 l(81,890 US gal, 68,200 imp gal),356,000 l(94,000 US gal, 78,300 imp gal) option
Engines (4 x)
GP7270 (A380-861)Trent 970/B (A380-841)Trent 972/B (A380-842)
GP7277 (A380-863F)Trent 977/B (A380-843F)
Thrust (4 x)
311 kN (70,000 lbf)
4/9 '10 loves x3 9:53 PM