TOULOUSE, France - The Airbus A380, the world's biggest airliner, made its maiden flight on Wednesday, opening a new chapter in aviation history.
The A380 double-decker touched down at 2:23 pm (1223 GMT) at the Toulouse-Blagnac airport near the southwestern city of Toulouse, home of the European aircraft maker Airbus Industrie, after a successful flight of three hours and 54 minutes.
Airbus is a fully consolidated subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company. EADS owns 80 percent of the aircraft manufacturer and BAE Systems of Britain holds 20 percent.
Here are key Airbus facts about this "magnificent machine," as the prototype plane was described by one of the co-pilots on the milestone flight.
-- The prototype, carrying the registration F.WWOW, soared into the skies at a weight of 421 tonnes, the heaviest ever of any civil airliner at takeoff to date. The A380's maximum takeoff weight is 560 tonnes, the landing limit is 386 tonnes.
-- The prototype was powered by four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. Customers will have a choice between the British group's Trent 900 or the GP7200 of the Engine Alliance, a US-British joint venture between General Electric, and Pratt and Whitney.
-- The first version of the aircraft will have a baseline capacity of 555 passengers in a standard three-class configuration of first, business and economy classes, and about 840 in a charter configuration. In contrast, the Boeing 747-400, the only superjumbo jetliner in the skies since 1970, can carry 416 people with a three-class configuration.
-- Equipped with a double deck in the passenger version, the cabin will be capable of accommodating restaurants, shops, gyms and other inflight services.
-- The flight range is 8,000 miles (15,000 kilometers) non-stop, 10 percent greater than other large aircraft. The cargo version will be capable of transporting in a three-floor configuration up to 150 tonnes of freight and flying 10,400 kilometers without refueling.
-- The wingspan measures of 79.8 meters (264 feet) wide, almost the length of a US football field, compared with 70.6 meters for the B747.
-- Overall height is 24.1 meters.
-- Overall length is 72.7 meters.
-- Fuselage diameter is 7.14 meters, horizontally measured.
-- The A380 was launched in December 2004. The first airline delivery will be in mid-2006, to Singapore Airlines. The cargo version is to begin service in 2008.
-- Listed at a catalog price of between 263 and 286 million dollars (203-221 million euros), the A380 to date has attracted 154 contracts from 15 airlines, of which 144 are firm orders.
04/27/2005 16:19 GMT