Inside The Airbus A380

Emirates Airlines have announced that Manchester airport will be the first regional airport to routinely land the A380 superjumbo aircraft. It is planned that the superjumbo, which can carry up to 517 passengers, will be used in daily flights from Manchester to Dubai.

It has been said that the Airbus A380 is the future of flying, but many have expressed concerns based upon reliability and economy issues.

The aircraft began to experience problems even before its first flight in 2007. Enthusiasm for the superjumo is not very high with airlines and only around 25 have been delivered since it was launched.

The A380 airbus boasts a number of design enhancements that should have made it a popular choice with airlines. It is much quieter than its competitors, due to advanced wing and undercarriage design. It is also much more fuel efficient due to the use of weight saving composite materials and exhaust emissions are enormously reduced.

Both Emirates airlines and Quantas have expressed concern over the aircraft’s reliability. Quantas experienced some high profile problems when all three of their A380 aircraft were grounded and declared unserviceable due to fuel tank indicator system problems.

Many commercial airlines have suffered due to the recession. This has led to the cancellation of orders for the A380 from the likes of: Lufthansa, Virgin Airlines, Thai Airways, Fed Ex and others.

But Manchester airport have gone ahead and spent around £10 million on upgrading the airfield and terminal buildings to accommodate the super-size aircraft. Emirates airlines currently use Boeing 777 aircraft for their Manchester to Dubai service.

Tim Clark, Emirates Airline president has said: “Manchester has been one of the strongest performers in our growing network of regional gateways, not only in the UK but globally. Our customers value our commitment to a regional network at a time when other airlines are abandoning them.”

So it’s looking like this new iconic jet is set to become as much an eye-catching fixture at Manchester airport as it is at Heathrow and other busy international hubs.

Save money when traveling by booking your Manchester airport parking, Gatwick parking or Heathrow parking spaces well in advance.

Airbus A380 is the biggest airliner ever build. A3XX was its pre-production designation code. The length of A380 is longer than the length of a football field.

Here’s the Airbus A380 Dimensions in metric terms:

• Overall length: 73 meters
• Height: 24,1 meters
• Fuselage diameter: 7,14 meters
• Maximum cabin width: 6,58 meters (main deck) and 5,92 meters (upper deck)
• Cabin length: 49,90 meters
• Wingspan: 79,8 meters (geometric)
• Wing area: 845 square meter (reference)
• Wing sweep: 33,5 degrees (25% chord)
• Wheelbase: 30,4 meters
• Wheel track: 14,3 meters

The plane has a total of three decks. The main and upper deck are used for passenger, which are connected near the airplane’s front by a majestic staircase and at the airplane’s back part, a small staircase is set. Special passenger utilization can be accomodated on the lower deck outfit, although its main purpose is for cargo. The lower deck can be modified to become a business center, a sleeper cabins, or maybe also a child care center. Airline may decide what the purpose of the lower deck would be.

A380 total capacity is 840 passengers in one-class configuration and 555 passengers in three-class configuration. Compare to the airliner Boeing 747-400 dimensions, the A380 has thirty to fifty percent more seats to offer. The A380 has the ability to fly a long distance of 10,000 miles. The engines are developed to lift up the 1,2 million pounds of the airplane’s weight for any kind of flight distance.

Ten airlines interested to purchase this kind of jet bus. The New Plane receive 66 orders right after its first launching on December 2000. Some of the customers are famous airlines such as Air France, Federal Express, Emirates, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Qantas, Virgin Atlantic and Singapore Airlines.

Airbus received more orders since the production started on January 23rd in 2002. The first carrier to use A380 for commercial service is Singapore Airlines. It’s due on year 2007. Australian’s Qantas Airways, and UAE’s Emirates Airlines following to operate the A380.   

Thanks to their newest technology, A380 will turn into a more effective airplane than its major rival, The Boeing 747-400. Airbus A380 uses a new state of the art engines, which has less fuel consumption, less noise, and making cheaper flight possible.

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