Qantas A380! (1 Viewer)

[milocole]

Who's Exited!!!!!!
Anyone going to YSSY on Sunday or the Holidays to see her around the place?

-Handover to Qantas is 4.15am Saturday 20th September in Toulouse
-Arrival at Sydney somewhere between 8.30-9am Sunday Morning

​

Steve Creedy, Aviation writer | September 19, 2008

IT is two years late. It resulted in compensation to Qantas of more than $200 million, upset the airline's fleet plans and handed an arch-rival a bigger than expected competitive advantage.​

The first Airbus A380 with Qantas livery waits at Toulouse for its delivery flight to Sydney. It is scheduled to arrive on Sunday. Picture: AP

But it will be all smiles today as Qantas finally takes delivery of its first flagship Airbus A380 in the European plane maker's home town of Toulouse.
The giant plane is due to take off just before midnight tonight, Toulouse time, and will fly via Singapore to land in Sydney about 9am (AEDT) on Sunday.
The plane is due to enter commercial service on the Melbourne-Los Angeles route on October 20, with Sydney-Los Angeles following four days later.
It is due to go head to head with Singapore Airlines' A380 service on the Sydney-Singapore-London route from January.
If Singapore is anything to go by, the new plane should slide into service with minimal hiccups.
The double-decker superjumbo has already been flying commercially for almost a year and the Singaporean carrier, which now has half a dozen of the giant planes, says it has been its smoothest ever entry into service.
One reason for this is that the production delays that have plagued the aircraft, most of them due to a screw-up in the design and installation of wiring, allowed Airbus to extensively test the plane's sophisticated technology.
This has allowed the manufacturer to fix some of the bugs that might ordinarily have remained when it entered service.
Qantas will be the third airline to get the plane. Dubai-based Emirates received its first A380 last month and quickly flew a commercial service to New York. There is speculation Emirates might boost its current order of 20 aircraft.
That would likely be welcomed by financial analysts, who say the new aircraft can generate significant cost savings.
But it should also please environmentalists and people living near airports. The plane is the first of a new breed of more environmentally friendly aircraft. A person travelling 100km in one of its new seats uses only three litres of fuel, or about the same as a hybrid car.
The plane is also significantly quieter than its predecessor.
Airservices Australia tests have shown it's between 2.3 and 6.7 decibels quieter than a Boeing 747-400 during take-off and 2.1 to 3.7 decibels quieter than the same plane during landing. This is partly due to a new design of aerodynamics and partly to a new breed of engine.
The superjumbo is powered by massive Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, each with a diameter of almost 10ft and capable of developing a sea-level static thrust of 72,000lbs.
At take-off, the four engines on the A380 deliver a thrust equivalent to the power of more than 3500 cars and its hollow, titanium fan blades suck in more than 1.25 tonnes of air every second as the tips travel at 1.3 times the speed of sound.
Qantas pilots have been training extensively to fly the new plane. Those spoken to by The Australian say it is enjoyable to fly and particularly stable when landing.
The pilots have been training at the airline's $34 million simulator at Mascot and many have been to Toulouse to try their hand at the real thing. More than 60 flight crew have now trained on the simulator to become the vanguard of a small army of about 560 pilots who will eventually take charge of the 20 A380s.
The A380 is also proving a hit with passengers, who invariably remark on how quiet the cabin is compared to other planes.
Airlines that have the aircraft so far have adopted it as their flagship and kitted it out to be the showpiece of their fleets. This means seating configurations below the Airbus-recommended optimum and new features such as lounges, bars, showers and luxurious first class seats.
In Qantas's case, this means 450 seats with 14 in first, 72 in business, 32 in premium economy and 332 economy.
Marc Newson was brought in to design the aircraft's interior and customers were drafted to test the comfort of its seats. Those able to shell out for first-class comfort will get a private suite with a 17in widescreen video monitor and seat that swivels into an armchair of a fully-flat extra long and wide bed.

Business class features a private lounge area on the upper deck with leather sofas, a self-service bar and big-screen monitor that can be connected to a laptop for presentations.

One of the more interesting decisions by Qantas was to stick with an enhanced version of its existing business class Skybed rather than follow the Singapore and Emirates lead and design an entirely new product for the premium cabin.

The new version of the Skybed reclines to fully flat position, is 203cm away from the seat in front of it and in a two-two-two layout that eliminates the dreaded middle seat. Other changes include a bigger monitor that is now in the seat as well as new storage options.

Qantas says the decision to stick with Skybed was a product of consumer research.

"What our research was telling us was that we had the fundamentals right and the key ingredient we needed to work on was the fully flat," Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti told The Australian recently. "In doing that, though, we also improved other features. We improved privacy, we improved storage and we improved the video screen. It's no longer in the seat in front of you because the seat in front of you is farther away. And we improved its comfort."

The premium economy cabin, also on the upper deck and behind the business cabin, features an ergonomically designed seat that is wider and has more leg room than economy.

Passengers in cattle class should also get more space with a new design of seat by manufacturer Recaro that includes a carbon fibre seat back, an articulating base and flexible front edge.

Everybody will get access to a new Panasonic entertainment system with more than 100 on-demand movies, 350 television selections, 500 audio CDs, 30 PC-style games and a selection of audio books and radio.

And to help passengers adapt to their destination, the new system will feature Lonely Planet guides as well as language tutorials. Just which airline will emerge the victor in the battle of the big planes remains to be seen, but passengers appear to have already scored wins.

 

[Triple777ER]

HSC exams next month, so until then, no aircraft for me, except for looking at them while walking to school.

 

[milocole]

HSC exams next month, so until then, no aircraft for me, except for looking at them while walking to school.

You must be exited about V Australia coming downunder soon with their 777's soon then..

 

[Triple777ER]

oh hell yeah and especially because they are the 300ER's. The HUUUUUGE GE-90 engines!

 

[milocole]

She arrived 16R at 8.58

VERY EXITING, even from the TV. Would have gone, but QF/JQ/DJ were all charging through the roof for their early morning flights....

 

[xXmuffin0manXx]

anyone else notice the "nancy-bird walton" ??

 

[milocole]

anyone else notice the "nancy-bird walton" ??

Saw that, thought they would have changed it on the Singapore Stopover....

 

[Roga]

I wouldn't mind going on the A380

 

[xXmuffin0manXx]

I wouldn't mind going on the A380

ive been in the sim for the a380 =]

 

[chicky_pie]

Has anyone seen the inside layout for the Qantas A380? Apparently it's fugly green (economy) so no no, I'll stick with Singapore's if I had to use a A380.

 

[ZabZu]

Its about bloody time they got the A380.

 

[milocole]

Here are some photos from Today scathing the net...

 

[electrolysis]

Its about bloody time they got the A380.

lol true, this shouldve happend two years ago
apparantly qantas shouldve had 8 to 12 A380's in the skies right now

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

tee hee hee

in a few years air travel will become almost prohibitively expensive for most.

what a waste of money. :rofl:

edit: of course, the greater fuel efficiency is welcomed, but still...

 

[Triple777ER]

A380 pilots are having a ball in sydney, before they head off to France.

 

[ratcher0071]

I thought we already had some A380s, then I remembered, they only bought 1

 

[iamsickofyear12]

There is a chance I will be on one of these in Dec/Jan.

The fact that it is really big doesn't particular impress me. I am only interested in the power-points in every seat and the entertainment system that is supposed to have 100 movies and 500 TV shows (although if my past experience with Qantas is anything to go by it won't work anyway).

 

[5233andy]

There's a possibility that I'm gonna head off to London after the HSC, next year. Yay! By then, QF31 to LHR would be operated by an A380!

By the way, the green economy seats are a bit strange.... not really promoted by the QF website, where its initial, or should I say intended colours were red. Borghetti mentioned on yesterday's QF Forum/Live chat that it's meant to reflect the Australian landscape.

 

[5233andy]

Apparently, on the Emirates A380, first class passengers have available to them the use of an ensuite - yes, a shower whilst you're flying in the sky. EK is only currently operating its A380 on the DXB to JFK (or is it Newark) flight.

 

[5233andy]

A good place to spot planes would be along The Boulevard of Brighton-le-Sands, which is directly next to... RWY32? (the man made island for the runway) It's the only one long enough for the A380 as well as the B744.