Airbus was fighting hard to be in the Market after Boeing launched 747 models in the market. Boeing was dominating passenger plane market. In late 1980s, Jean Roeder, with team of engineers proposed a plan of making Ultra-High-Capacity-Airliner (UHCA). The design, Jean team was working on got approval for feasibility test from Airbus management. In June 1994 it was finally decided to go for developing a monster aircraft which will have 20% more passenger’s capacity then biggest passenger plan of that itmes that is era of Boeing 747. After long 6 years Airbus launched a program to manufacture the model name A380 with the confirm orders of 50 at cost of $8.8 billion each.
The size of this plane is like 19 storage building with height of 73 meters. So just imagine that 555 people with their language can take off in one piece of extreme engineer and this can be seen as one of the man made wonder on this land. The Singapore airline was the first to get the delivery of this flight in 15October 2007 and Emirates was the second to get in August 2008. Following to this Quantus, Lufthansa, Korean Air and so on got their first delivery in later year. In 2012, Airbus got 253 confirm orders for A380 which was an achievement in themselves. If you have ever seen Boeing or have flight in Boeing 747, you may relate better with following stats.
Boeing 747-400 | VS | Airbus A380-800 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
70.70 m | 232 ft | Length | 73.00 m | 239.5 ft |
64.44 m | 211.4 ft | Wingspan | 79.80 m | 261.8 ft |
541.20 m2 | 5,825 ft2 | Wing area | 845.00 m2 | 9,096 ft2 |
19.41 m | 63.7 ft | Height | 24.10 m | 79.1 ft |
4 | Engines | 4 | ||
282 kN | 63,300 lbf | Thrust per Engine | 311 kN | 70,000 lbf |
1,128 kN | 253,200 lbf | Total Thrust | 1,244 kN | 280,000 lbf |
396,900 kgs | 875,000 lbs | MTOW | 548,000 kgs | 1,208,000 lbs |
13,400 km | 7,236 nm | Range | 15,000 km | 8,100 nm |
M0.85 | Cruise speed | M0.85 | ||
416 passengers | Capacity | 555 passengers |
* Courtesy: This information is collected from website of Boeing and Airbus, but it is perfect up to my knowledge.