Bangkok--Oct 31--eTurboNews
LONDON (eTurboNews) -- The Airbus A380 superjumbo successfully landed its first international test flight at Frankfurt main airport on Saturday.
Thousands of people gathered at the airport to witness the event and airport staff struggled to keep the airport functioning as normal. Around 20,000 spectators crowded into a temporary public compound set up at the south end of the airport, the site of the former military Rhein-Main air base. The arrival of the A380 was shown live on television and in streaming video on the Internet. Thousands more people caught sight of the A380 on Sunday morning when it flew over Frankfurt at low altitude just before the start of the city's annual marathon run.
Frankfurt that was chosen for the first test landing of the aircraft outside Airbus' own runway in Toulouse, rather than Paris or London Heathrow because those airports are not so far advanced with their preparations for the world's biggest passenger airliner.
It's been undergoing a series of ground tests including boarding bridges, access for service vehicles, cargo loading and fuelling as part of rigorous procedures for licensing the new aircraft for commercial service.
"Handling operations on the ramp proceeded as expected and, together with Airbus, we are delighted about the results," said Wilhelm Bender, chairman of Fraport AG, the airport operator. Tests at Frankfurt Airport's Terminal 2 included docking a passenger bridge to the upper deck of the Airbus A380 for the first time, providing catering supplies to this section of the aircraft using special lift trucks, providing the full range of supply and disposal services as well as de-icing.
Frankfurt will be a maintenance base for the Superjumbo, and construction of the servicing facility which will be large enough to hold four A380s at any one time, is due for completion in 2007. Lufthansa, Frankfurt Airport's biggest customer, has ordered 15 double-decker A380s, the first of which are scheduled for delivery that year.
The A380 will fly to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in the first half of November and will then be on display at the Dubai air show later in the month. Singapore Airlines will be the first to take delivery of an A380 at the end of 2006, followed by Qantas Airways and Emirates in the second quarter of 2007.
The A380 on this tour is MSN001, the first aircraft to fly and one of five taking part in the flight-test campaign. It has already made over 100 technical test flights from its base in Toulouse, France. Its cabin is fitted with extensive flight-test instrumentation, measuring equipment and ballast tanks that can be filled with water to simulate the weight of a full load of passengers and cargo.
The A380 is designed to use existing large airports, but they need some adaptation to accommodate it and to handle its payload of between 550 and 800 passengers. Airports will not need to build extra long runways for the A380, since its take-off and landing distance is shorter than the rival Boeing 747.
The A380 will be the world's first modern jet with a full-length twin-deck. Airlines have an option of a number of different configurations, depending on market demand and conditions. The standard layout recommended by Airbus provides 22 first class seats and 334 economy class seats on the main deck and 96 business class and 103 economy class seats on the upper deck.
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