The Airbus A380 transformed the world of aviation on the day of its maiden flight in 2007.
The mega plane broke international records on its launch, clinching multiple accolades as the world’s biggest, greenest and quietest commercial aircraft.
15 things you might not know about the largest plane on earth
- The A380 is the largest civil aircraft (max seating capacity of 853) in history.
- The A380 was launched in December 2000, 34 years after the Boeing 747 (1966).
- An A380 consists of around four million individual components with 2.5 million part numbers produced by 1,500 companies from 30 countries around the world.
- It takes 13,000 rivets to join the three sections of the fuselage and 4,000 rivets are used for the junction of the wings and the fuselage.
- The total area of the A380’s two passenger decks is 550 square metres, the same as three tennis courts, or slightly more than one basketball court.
- One wing (empty, without fuel), weighs 40 tonnes.
- During take-off the wing will flex upwards by over four metres.
- The wingspan is 79.8 metres and the wings are swept at an angle of 33.5 degrees.
- The A380 wing area is 845 square metres. This enables the A380 to land 20 knots and helps to reduce noise around airports.
- An A380 has five landing gears and 22 wheels.
- There are 5,000 light scenarios on board, using a wide choice of fluorescent and LED technology.
- The weight of the external paint of the A380 (topcoat plus primer) is equal to 531 kg – the weight of a horse. It takes 10 to 15 days to paint an A380.
- The maximum design load on the 6-wheel body gear is 260 tonnes – equivalent to 200 VW Golfs or Peugeot 206s.
- The average catalogue price of an A380 is $403 million.
