A380 Visits Heathrow For The First Time
There was a time when a
plane launched from a French airfield would face an unpleasant
reception as it flew low over the aircraft-components factories of
Broughton in North Wales, and Filton in coastal Bristol, England.
Barrage balloons, anti-aircraft guns, and marauding eight-gun
Hurricanes... but that was then and this is now, and now the
continental invader is the very welcome Airbus A380.
The record-setting jet made its first visit to Britain this
week, as reported by brief items in various British papers on
Thursday. The British plants are vital to Airbus Industrie; all
wings for the company's jets, among other vital components, are
designed and built in Britain.
It's fair to say that thousands of British jobs -- good
manufacturing jobs, of the sort that are fewer and fewer in Western
economies -- depend on Airbus's new products, including the A380,
the world's largest passenger plane. That explains why thousands of
workers stood outside and cheered the mammoth jet as it flew
overhead; for most of the workers, it not only was a rare chance to
see what they had built "in the wild," it also represented for them
promise and hope of a future.
After buzzing the cheering plant workers, the A380 headed to at
Heathrow (ELHR) where it was first greeted, as it descended out of
the cloudy sky, by that British institution, planespotters.
And as it taxied in, Airbus test pilot Ed Strongman, a Briton
(naturally!), extended a Union Jack out the window, before guiding
the jet into a new gate, Pier 6 at Terminal 3, specially rebuilt
for the double-decker giant at a cost of over a hundred million UK
pounds. (The rebuild project began in May 2004; ultimately Heathrow
will have nine A380-ready piers.)
The VIP crowd meeting
the big 'Bus included politicians, airline executives, and airport
officials. To the relief of all, the airplane did indeed fit into
the new gate -- one of the official reasons for the visit was to
confirm that detail. (That sudden sound of exhalation was a group
of British architects and engineers relaxing).
Airbus explained to the press that it saw the A380s as flying
the trunk routes of a worldwide hub and spoke system; at the trunk
hubs, passengers would transfer to smaller aircraft to travel to
smaller airports. Conversely, Boeing's approach with the mid-sized
787 Dreamliner envisions a point-to-point air route system. Small
surprise, then, that the radically different next-generation
jetliners appeal to different airlines, from different parts of the
world.
While most people are most interested in the superlative size of
the A380, it's incrementally, not vastly, larger than the venerable
747. What makes it interesting to aviation and manufacturing people
is its use of new technology to make it more economical, efficient
and environmentally friendly. For example, novel materials (at
least in commercial aviation applications) like lithium alloy parts
and GLARE (GLAss-REinforced Fiber Metal Laminate) skin are
used.
Not everybody was thrilled with the design aesthetics of the
functional A380; the Telegraph's David Millward called it "a squat
beast with the build of a rugby prop forward." He reported mostly
negative reactions from others, including "stubby and fat," "Cuban
cigar," and "obesity problem."
Millward also noted that Heathrow managing director Tony
Douglas, and engineer, and former British Airways Concorde chief
pilot Mike Bannister, liked it. "There are no straight lines on it
at all!" Douglas marveled, and Bannister especially admired the
wings -- and noted, "there are plans for a stretch version and that
will look much prettier."
Airbus has 159 firm orders for the airplane, from 16 airlines,
and the next open delivery slot is in 2011. Singapore Airlines, the
launch customer, expects to have their first airplane in revenue
service before year's end. Qantas and Emirates are right behind.
Over the life of the project, Airbus hopes to sell up to 700 of the
machines, in passenger and dedicated freight versions.