The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body,
four-engine jet airliner manufactured by the European
corporation Airbus,
a subsidiary of EADS.
It is the world's largest passenger airliner and due to its size, many airports
have had to expand their facilities to properly accommodate it. Designed to
challenge Boeing's
monopoly in the large-aircraft market, the A380 made its maiden flight on 27
April 2005 and entered initial commercial service in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines. The aircraft was known as
the Airbus A3XX during much of its development, before receiving the
A380 designation.
The A380's upper deck extends
along the entire length of the fuselage, with a width equivalent to a wide-body aircraft.
This allows for an A380-800's cabin with 478 square metres (5,145.1 sq ft) of
floor space; 49% more floor space than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing
747-400 with 321 square metres (3,455.2 sq ft), and provides seating
for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people
in all-economy class configurations. The A380-800 has
a design range of 15,400 kilometres (8,300 nmi; 9,600
mi), sufficient to fly from New York to Hong Kong, and a cruising speed of Mach
0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude).
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