Think painting your kitchen takes a long time? Try painting Airbus’s new A380 superjumbo jet.
The European plane-maker announced on Wednesday that it started the process of coating its mammoth plane with roughly 950 gallons of paint, including primer, customer paint and top coating.
The whole process — which also includes cleaning, masking and unmasking — should take about three weeks.
After suffering through several setbacks, Airbus plans to deliver its first A380 to Singapore Airlines in October.
Boeing’s 747-400 jumbo jet takes about 900 to 1,200 pounds of paint depending on the customer’s paint scheme, said Tim Bader, spokesman for the 747 program.
The company’s newest version of the “Queen of the Skies,” its 747-8, is slightly larger than the –400, thus will require additional paint, he said. The plane enters service in late 2009.
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