British Council-Airbus
Transcript of the podcast
Everything about this aeroplane is enormous, the numbers are truly mind-boggling
Its overall length is 73 metres
That’s about as long as the Great Sphinx in Egypt
The giant two-deck fuselage will typically have 550 seats, but has the potential to carry up to 800 passengers
The tail, at 21 meters from the ground, is as high as a seven-storey building
The 845m2 wing area is big enough to park 70 cars
The A380 can fly a staggering 15,000km without refuelling and in order to do that, it needs to carry 310,000 litres of fuel, making the plane’s takeoff weight 560 tonnes
Incredibly, though, the A380 will actually be more fuel-efficient than other, similar-sized jumbo-jets
Airbus claim that the plane will burn about 3 litres of fuel per passenger per 100km, making it as economical to run as a family car
The building of the A380 is a remarkable example of transnational cooperation. The final assembly line is in Toulouse in France, but this is only the end of an impressively complicated process
The construction of each aircraft is the result of collaboration between France, Germany, Britain and Spain
The wings, for example, are built in England and Wales
The main sections of the fuselage are constructed in Hamburg, Germany
Parts for the nose and the tail are in fact made in Spain, and only assembled in Germany
Everything is then shipped to France to be put together
The A380 jigsaw gets even more complicated, however. Although a European venture, few people realise how much of the plane is actually made or designed outside the EU
The wings, for example, were created by designers in Wichita in the United States. Some wing panels, the wheels, and most of the cockpit electronics are also made in America
In fact, in terms of actual cost, almost half the aircraft is made in the USA
