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Airbus 380... The Mighty Commercial Airplane

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The Airbus A380 is truly a giant. It has a wingspan of 261.8 feet (79.8 meters), a length of 239.5 feet (73 meters) and a maximum take-off weight of more than 1.2 million pounds (540,000 kg).
While it is the largest passenger airliner ever made, it is not the biggest airplane in the world -- this honor belongs to the Ukrainian An-225 Cossack (see below: "The Biggest Planes Ever").
A plane this size can potentially carry hundreds more passengers than today's airliners. The A380's two passenger decks (with a cargo deck below) could be outfitted in a single-class configuration to take on up to 840 passengers. However, Airbus isn't focusing on that option, instead designing a three-class configuration for 555 passengers. That's still a marked increase over the 416 passengers that can fit into a Boeing 747-400, the current leader in passenger capacity.

The Cost of Greatness

Airbus has spent an estimated $13 billion on the development of the A380. The price for a single plane is listed at $285 million. Industry experts point out that airlines rarely pay full list price, especially if they order large numbers of planes, so it is difficult to determine exactly how many planes Airbus needs to sell to recoup the development costs. It's important to remember that a new airplane design will be modified and upgraded for decades -- Airbus has said that it's looking toward 2020 in designing the Airbus. The Boeing 747 has been flying since 1970.

The A380 project had a staff of more than 6,000 people in 2002.. While work was being done at the manufacturing end, sales were also picking up, with 14 airlines ordering 154 A380s as of early 2005.The first complete A380 was unveiled on January 18, 2005. The first test flight is scheduled for March 2005, with regularly scheduled service with Singapore Airlines to begin one year later. A cargo-only version, the A380F, will begin flights in 2008.

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From: Bhaskar Sen Sharma @ Convergys (Hyderabad)