A380 Airbus

Airbus A380

Airbus  A380 made its first flight in April 2005. So far 200 of them have been ordered and 13 in total have been delivered to be operated. A380 project started off as A380 navigator. After it entered the commercial use, 17 of the world’s leading airline operators made the decision to make it a part of their fleet. This was due to A380′s Eco-friendly concept, lesser fuel consumption per person kilometer, lesser engine noise and more comfort added to it for passengers. Aircraft operators either using this aircraft or those who are waiting for delivery include: Air France, British Airways, China Southern Airlines, EmiratesEtihad Airways, International Lease Finance Corporation, Kingdom Holding Company, Kingfisher Airlines, Korean Air Lines, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas Airways, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways International, Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Airbus had €11 billion invested on it when the first aircraft was completed. It has been claimed to have the direct operating cost of A380 15-20 percent lesser than competitor Boeing 747-400. 747-400 is one of the new generation aircrafts of Boeing with enhanced cabin, avionics and flight technology. Both these aircratfs have the capacity of 525 passengers. Airbus is using the concept of fly-by-wire. The cable web as was used earlier in commercial aircrafts has transformed into electronic control system that utilizes the electric signals, determining the specific parts’ deflections, to control aircraft movement. Fly-by-wire also helps maintaining the commonality between different sized aircrafts. This particular aspect assists the pilots to get used to the flight control in fewer time. Thus, reducing the cost of training the pilots for one particular aircraft.

A380 is aimed to serve for next 50 years the aviation industry. This shows that it has enough capacity for upgradation so as to keep it coping with the challenges faced time to time. The reason provided for A380′s low fuel consumption and lower noise is the use of composite materials. Coming first to fuel consumption, Airbus made use of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP). CFRP has been used for about 25% of the aircraft. This helped to reduce the overall weight by 15 tonns, thus reducing fuel consumption and noise. Engine noise has also been reduced by Zero-Splice inlet, integrated into engines’ nacelles, which is a single piece instead of several pieces glued together. Have a look at it:

Zero Splice Engine Inlet of A380

Avionics systems have been improved much in this generation of Airbus aircrafts. Head-up display for the pilot, control stick, set of 8 LCDs to monitor several aircraft controls are some of the aspects that make it easy to fly are there for pilot. Data communication between different electronic systems has been made quicker alongwith more data integrity.

AIRCRAFT DIMENSIONS:
	metric	imperial
Overall length	73 m	239 ft. 3 in.
Height	24.1 m	79 ft. 7 in.
Fuselage diameter	7.14 m	23 ft. 5 in.
Maximum cabin width	Main deck: 6.58 m Upper deck: 5.92 m	Main deck: 21 ft. 7 in. Upper deck: 19 ft. 5 in.
Cabin length	49.90 m	163 ft. 8 in.
Wingspan (geometric)	79.8 m	261 ft. 8 in.
Wing area (reference)	845 m2	9,100 ft2
Wing sweep (25% chord)	33.5 degrees	33.5 degrees
Wheelbase	30.4 m	99 ft. 8 in.
Wheel track	14.3 m	46 ft. 11 in.

A380′s per person fuel consumption is comparable to that of an economical family car. But, again it is an aircraft, so you might try comparing it with Audi A8′s fuel consumption. Eco-friendly aircrafts are something all the aviation industry is looking for in coming years. A380 can be of good use in this regard. It emits around 75g of CO2 per passenger kilometre. This gives a clear idea that Airbus is emphasizing more and more on making their aircrafts contribute their part in making our envoirnment better.

Weight is an important factor for aircraft. A380 has Glare (glassfibre reinforced aluminium) composite material used for much of the upper fuselage skins. This material has been manufactured by Stork Aerospace of the Netherlands. Glare offers 15-30% weight savings over aluminium, and boasts excellent fatigue properties.

A380 has following weight specs:

	tonnes	lb x 1000
Maximum ramp weight	562	1,239
Maximum takeoff weight	560	1,235
Maximum landing weight	386	851
Maximum zero fuel weight	361	796
Maximum fuel capacity	310.000  Litres	81,890 US gal.
Typical operating weight empty	276.8	608.4

BASIC OPERATING DATA:
	metric	imperial
Engines	Trent 900 or GP 7000	Trent 900 or GP 7000
Engine thrust range	311 kN	70,000 lb. slst
Typical passenger seating	525	525
Range (w/max. passengers)	15.200 km	8,200 nm.
Max. operating Mach number (Mmo)	0.89 Mo.	0.89 Mo.

A380, initially, had the Trent 900  engines from Rolls Royce. But, now Pratt & Whitney will be providing enhanced performance engines. Using these Pratt & Whiteney engines, the Gas to Liquid (GTL) synthetic fuel research has been started. This concept of GTL takes in the natural gas and then converts it to liquid kerosene. Kerosene, having much similarity with the aviation grade fuel, is very suitable for getting the aircraft engines into spin with speciality of lesser CO2 emissions.

Competitor for A380: 747-400, Keep track as i will be posting on 747 so as to make the comparison of these two.