The wonders of modern aviation never cease to amaze me. Being an enthusiast of modern commercial aviation I sit patiently waiting for the next big thing to come out from the two builders of these winged marvels. So, it was to my utter amazement to hear about Airbus Industries’ new Jumbo Jet tagged the A380. The A380 is one huge plane. It is the world’s largest commercial Plane easily eclipsing the Boeing 747. To visualize just how much bigger it is to the Boeing 747, the airbus A380 is 24.1 m (79 ft) high, 73.0 m (239 ft 6 in) long and weighs in at 610,700 lbs (277,000 kg) as compared to the Boeing 747’s 19.4 m (63 ft 8 in) high, 70.7 m (231 ft 10 in) long and 393,263 lbs (178,756 kg) weight. In addition the maximum takeoff weight for the Boeing 747 is 875,000 lbs (397,000 kg) and the Airbus A380’s maximum takeoff weight is a whopping 1,234,600 lbs (560,000 kg)!

The Airbus A380 seats 555 people and is a true double-decker design. The upper deck has 96 Business Class seats and 103 Economy Class seats. On the lower deck there are 22 First Class seats and 334 Economy Class seats. Of course some airlines may decide to remove some seats and put in a shop, bar, casino, hot tubs or anything else making this a true luxury jet.

So the main question people ask me is how this huge marvel even gets off the ground. Well, it is powered by either four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 Turbofans providing 68,000 to 84,000lbs. of thrust each or four Engine Alliance (General Electric/Pratt & Whitney) GP7200 Turbofans providing 82,000lbs. of thrust each.

Either way you look at it the Airbus A380 is one huge plane and with all the development and technology that went into building this modern marvel it has separated itself from the competition by being the largest commercial plane in the skies today and one of the most expensive planes ever developed and built at an estimated cost of $15 billion.

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