Singapore Airlines’ A380 set to fly
Published 12:06 pm Tuesday, October 23, 2007
What has the power of 2,500 family-size cars, can house 10 squash courts and can hold 4.5 million tennis balls?
It’s Airbus’s A380, of course.
Singapore Airlines is counting down the remaining hours until the carrier puts its first super jumbo jet into flight on Thursday. Like Airbus’ A380 delivery site, Singapore’s
Web site has plenty of pictures and info on the world’s largest passenger plane.
Besides the A380 technical data, you also will find brief histories of Airbus’s mammoth jet and Singapore Airlines’ “firsts” in commercial aviation.
Without a doubt, the most entertaining aspect of the site is its “Amazing Comparisons” page. Here, you’ll find facts like the number of Singapore Gin Slings it would take to fill an A380’s fuel tank (answer: 1.5 million of the 200 milliliter cocktails).
One comparison doesn’t paint the most flattering figure of the A380. The super jumbo jet is about the same length as two blue whales.
That image of the A380 as a behemoth is the center of this USA Today report, which suggests that the double-decker is simply too big.
The A380 will be able to visit regularly only about a dozen cities, analyst Richard Aboulafia tells the newspaper. And not many of those cities will be in the United States, especially since no U.S. carrier has ordered the jet.
Jason Speer, one of the passengers who will take part in the A380’s inaugural flight tells USA Today that his first flight on the super jumbo jet probably will be his last.
“The thought of being in Customs with 500 other people and their baggage does not appeal to me,” he says. “This is an opportunity to experience once and be part of history, but I don’t think I’d want to do it on a regular basis.”
