The world’s biggest plane, the Airbus A380 double-decker began its first flight from a runway near Toulouse, France.
Hundereds of people gathered to watch the take-off and cheered as it got off of the ground.
A Bloomberg article says:
The A380, which will weigh as much as 569 tons when fully loaded, took off at 10:29 a.m. from the same runway near Airbus’s Toulouse, France, headquarter from which the supersonic Concorde made its maiden flight in 1969. Airbus spokeswoman Barbara Kracht said the first flight would last as long as four hours, depending on conditions and results.
Airbus expects airlines will order enough of the 555-seat planes to secure its lead over Chicago-based Boeing, whose newest plane will be the 250-seat 787. The European planemaker said on March 9 that the breakeven point on the program has risen to sales of 300 planes from 250 as projected development costs of 12 billion euros ($16 billion) rise as much as 15 percent.
“This aircraft is a very strong indicator of their intent to be No. 1 in the world, but the economics of the plane are really tight,” said aerospace expert Gareth Evans. “The development costs are massive, and my gut feeling is they’ll have to sell a lot more than 250 planes” to make the program profitable.
The A380 has been made quieter than past Airbus models on requests from customers to do so.
According to a New York Times article, The A380 will only fly into 25 airports at first, but that number will grow over the next 20 years.
Airbus has received orders for 154 of the planes so far. No American carriers have ordered any.
Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
