"A380 Mini" is a Single Seat, Shrunken Airliner for the Sport Pilot

Special 04.01.23 Parody Edition: Airbus is making waves with their latest addition to the company portfolio, introducing a homebuilt aircraft kit, a one-eighth-scale rendition of their giant A380 airliner.

The A380 Mini will be offered for completion as an Experimental Amateur Built aircraft, one which outweighs both Part 103 Ultralight and LSA weight limits. 

The project has its roots in a back-of-the-napkin project by a handful of Airbus engineers in their off hours, taken up by an anonymous exec within the company who apparently wanted an example bad enough to greenlight a limited production run of the kits for their own creation. The kit contains provisions for 4 PBS TJ100 turbojet engines mounted in underwing nacelles, providing about 292 pound-feet of torque of force apiece. The rear fuel cell is enough for a scant 45 minutes of flight in most flight regimes, with about an hour of flight with a light hand on the throttles. The kit will be a limited production for the company, with only 25 units expected to be made in the first run.

"This is a true passion product for us," said Harry Wenger, chief carbon shaping artisan in the Airbus fuselage division. "We'll be making most of the parts for these as a one-off, just like we would a prototype aircraft. That means we won't be able to make them all the time, only turning out new kits while there's downtime on the autoclave. So anyone smitten with the 1/8 A380 had better buy one while they're here!"

Kits of the A380 Mini will begin shipping in Q2 2024. 

FMI: www.Airbus.com/A380-Mini