Thu, Apr 28, 2005 page1

• First A380 takes to the skies amid massive coverage

  • AFP
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  The Airbus A380, the biggest airliner in aviation history, flew for the first time Wednesday, ushering in a new era of air travel.

  Thousands of spectators cheered as the new A380 double-decker took off from the Toulouse-Blagnac airport under clear skies.

  The plane's 22 wheels glided down runway 22, dubbed the Concorde, where the world's only supersonic jetliner first took off 36 years ago, across from a 500-place press stand and banks of television cameras.

  The plane lifted off the ground for the first time at 10:29am, Airbus said, preceded by a small "chase" plane that scouted conditions for the six-man crew aboard the A380.

  The superjumbo headed northwest, turning its back on the southwestern city of Toulouse and its 700,000 inhabitants, as required for a test flight.

  The takeoff was markedly quieter than the others heard at the airport Wednesday morning, despite the immensity of the behemoth.

  In a momentous gamble for Airbus Industrie, the European aircraft maker that has punched its way to the top of the civil aircraft industry, the new plane challenges the Boeing 747's long dominance of the jumbo jet market.

  At takeoff, the prototype plane weighed 421 tonnes, the heaviest civil airliner to date, the company said. When fully furnished, the plane will weigh 600 tonnes.

  MAIDEN FLIGHT

  The inaugural flight, over southwestern France, was expected to last four and a half hours, Airbus said.

  The company had announced the much-anticipated maiden flight date Monday, after several delays.

  The plane, which debuted officially at an Airbus hangar in January, is to be used for decades as the test model for changes to the A380 model over the duration of the program.

  It is a long-haul, four-engine superjumbo that can carry between 550 and 840 passengers and fly 15,000km non-stop.

  The white double-decker, sporting the new Airbus trademark blues on its tail, sailed into clear, sunny skies, seemingly picture-perfect conditions for the maiden voyage.

  The head of the Airbus flight division, Claude Lelaie, piloting the superjumbo with chief test pilot Jacques Rosay, and four engineers, clad in orange flight suits, had boarded the plane at 8:40am.

  The long-haul plane is to touch down at the airport between one and five hours later, Airbus said, depending on weather conditions and how the plane was performing.

  The Number One prototype plane is strictly a test aircraft, equipped with about 20 tonnes of equipment, including work stations to monitor inflight data and other parameters.

  A live satellite feed of onboard data was being tracked by a team of experts on the ground, with particular attention paid to flight commands and structural stresses on the 600-tonne behemoth.

  The Airbus shareholders, parent company EADS, with an 80 percent holding, and BAE Systems of Britain, with 20 percent, have already invested heavily in the program: more than 10 billion euros (US$13 billion), and another 1.45 billion may be needed.

  The big plane has been a big draw: 15 airlines have already signed contracts for 154 planes, of which 144 are firm. The tally comes close to Airbus's forecasts of selling 150 planes by mid-2005.

  The order book is massive -- the catalog price of an A380 is between US$260 million and US$290 million. Singapore Airlines was the first to order, while other airlines have proven more difficult to lure.

  SPECTATORS

  The spectators had converged on the airport early in the morning, some setting up camping sites for a full day of A380 watching. Some 50,000 officials, spectators and media were expected to gather for the event.

  Security was tightened on the ground and in the air. Two huge parking areas around the airport, enough to accommodate 15,000 cars, were opened and police blocked traffic on nearby roads to allow spectators to approach on foot.

  Overhead, normal commercial traffic at the airport was to be suspended only during the 15 minutes before the A380 takeoff. The airspace was being patrolled to intercept any suspicious planes, officials said.
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