Air Bus A380

The Air Bus A380 took to the air today for official testing; they are aiming for an October maiden passenger flight.
Get used to this view boys, with a petrol consumption (when fully laden) comparable with that of a family car; the big plane is coming to an airport near you.



Image taken last July during the bi-yearly Farnborough International Air show.
Canon 5D with 100-400mm @400mm F/10 1/800sec ISO 100

I will never have the previlege of flying in a demonstration !
But I would like to.

And when gasoline/fuel ends into some years, or becomes hugelly expensive ?
Is the plain ready for hidrogen or whatever ?

This issue must have been considerated by now ...

Hi Antonio…Welcome back!!

Everyone seems to think this picture was taken from a following plane… but it was not, I was flat on my back on the grass, the plane had just taken off and the landing gear had just been retracted. The plane was doing a demonstration low level flight for the big air-lanes players, it was quiet a sight.
I do not have the information at hand as to whether the plane is Hydrogen compliant, my guess is not.
We should still have 50-100 years worth of oil in the ground so there is no hurry.

You plane shot is magnificent, Ivan!

Send a jpg to them, who know, they may fall in love with it too. Well they have thousands, for sure.

Anyway, to me the plane is a great human achievemnt, the culmination of many dreams and hard work by tens of thousands of people.

They, I'm sure were proud too.

The nice thing also is that this beauty will serve humans, and hopefuly do it safely for the next 40-50 years. So somehow, in your shot I see all this hope and wonder embedded.

such planes are technicological marvels we take for granted.

You shot brought that to me for free. Thanks for sharing!

Asher

Ivan Garcia said:

Hi Antonio…Welcome back!!... ... I do not have the information at hand as to whether the plane is Hydrogen compliant, my guess is not.
We should still have 50-100 years worth of oil in the ground so there is no hurry.

Click to expand...

Hi Ivan,

Small time 50-100 years ! In Nature scale I mean...
It's a shame if the plane is not hydrogen compliant...
The rize of India and China in consumming natural ressourses is a major problem for mankind these days...

I will never enter a A 380 in tests but I hope I will as passenger.

Meanwhile, I get into the cockpit of a small A310.

Hi Antonio.
Nice shots of the A310 cabin, I would guess, those pictures were taken before the 09/11 events.
While at Farnborough, I had the good fortune of receiving an invitation for a tour of the A380 airplane, unfortunately, and for security reasons, I was politely requested to surrender my camera for the tour.
The astonishing rate at which we consume natural resources is indeed a shame, and while our politicians are running around hands in head worrying about the threat of terrorism, the very real threat of global warming is being put in the back burner, this is, in my honest opinion, the biggest mistake in human history, the catastrophe waiting on the wings for us, is going to be unfathomable. So, although the plane is not hydrogen compliant, it is the most economical plane in it’s class, a very small, but worthy step in the right direction.


Asher.
Thank you for your kind words.
I did send a jpg file to the Farnborough news paper (a paper set up for the show), they liked the image, but they did not publish it, as I was too late with my submission.
In any case, I have their number (and they have mine), so hopefully, once I finish my degree, they can provide me with my first job assignment.

The shot was done last week on the flight to the Dominican Republic.
Not everibody is so nervous about terrorism...

Was it nice to fly on the new plane?

I read in the newspaper that the population of US is about half China's, but you/they consume the double in energy !

It is natural that photography was not allowed in the new plane...
How was the push to take off ?
I like it on the Boing 747 ...
The fealing of power ....

LOL Antonio.!!!
You misunderstood me.
All planes at Farnborough have a designated space in which they are displayed to the industry (for the first week) and to the public (second week).
I provided Chauffeur services to Airbus executives, one of them invited me for a Tour inside the plane, not to fly on it.
I had drivers assigned to several Airlines, so I received several invitations to visit displayed planes, during the trade week at the Farnborough Air show.

PS: I am amazed… you persuaded the captain of that plane to let you take pictures of the cockpit; there is no way they would have allowed that in the UK or the US.

Ivan Garcia said:

... ... PS: I am amazed… you persuaded the captain of that plane to let you take pictures of the cockpit; there is no way they would have allowed that in the UK or the US.

Click to expand...

It was very easy: everybody was Portuguese and going on holidays.

I just asked he said: OK after the meal.

And I don't look like a terrorist and in fact I am not one. On the contrary.

One can not be paranoid about terrorism...

I'll see what I can do on the way to India ...

Ivan,

We must been at each end of the runway at Farnborough!