- Start
- Apr 27, 200590% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
The Airbus A380 Makes Its First Flight
- The first A380, registered F-WWOW, first flew on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse–Blagnac Airport with a crew of six headed by chief test pilot Jacques Rosay.[1]
- Rosay said flying the A380 had been "like handling a bicycle".[1]
- The aircraft was equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines and had been unveiled in Toulouse on 18 January 2005.[1]
- Airbus launched the €9.5 billion programme on 19 December 2000 to challenge the 747’s dominance of the long-haul market.[1]
- Type certification from EASA and the FAA followed on 12 December 2006; wiring difficulties delayed production by two years and nearly doubled development costs.[1]
Notable features
- It is the world’s largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-deck jet airliner.[1]
- Airbus lists a typical three-class layout of 525 seats (10 first, 76 business and 439 economy), and the maximum certified capacity is 853 passengers in an all-economy layout.[1]
- The quadjet is powered by Engine Alliance GP7200 or Rolls-Royce Trent 900 turbofans for a range of 8,000 nmi (14,800 km), cruising typically at Mach 0.85.[1]
- It is 72.72 m long with a 79.75 m wingspan and 845 m² of wing area, and has a maximum takeoff weight of 575 t.[1]
- It was the first commercial airliner with a central wing box made of carbon-fibre reinforced plastic, and the first with a smoothly contoured wing cross-section.[1]
References 290% CONFIDENCE
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]90%en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A380en.wikipedia.org· Posted Sep 21, 2026· Starts Apr 27, 2005 ✓· 88% of score
Happened as dated, per en.wikipedia.org: the first prototype was "unveiled in Toulouse, France on 18 January 2005, commencing its first flight on 27 April 2005."
- [2]88%Happy 20th anniversary, A380!airbus.com· Published Apr 24, 2025· 12% of score
Airbus’ own 20th-anniversary account confirms the 27 April 2005 maiden flight and adds that flight test aircraft MSN001 took off at exactly 10:30 am.
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