Superjumbo
Friday, 10th August 2007 by Alex Turnbull
Here in Toulouse, France, Google Earth finally gets its first glimpse of the largest passenger airliner in the world, the Airbus A380 "Superjumbo".
The A380 is a double-decker, four-engined aircraft which provides seating for 525 people in standard three-class configuration or up to 853 people in full economy class mode. It takes 3,600 litres (950 gallons) of paint to cover the exterior, and each one has 530 km (330 miles) of wiring!
Actually there's two of these monster planes here at Toulouse airport, the other being parked just to the north, as this is where they're assembled. It was also here that the A380 first flew, initially with a take-off weight of 421 tonnes; and although this was only 75 percent of its maximum take-off weight, it was the heaviest take-off weight of any passenger airliner ever flown.
There's also a freighter model due for entry into service in 2014, which will have a payload capacity exceeded only by the previously featured Antonov An-225 Mriya. As ever, you can read more about the A380 at Wikipedia.
Thanks to Matthew McMillan, T van Rooijen, didier lauret, John Starfire and Ben Jackson.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Would this be one of the remaining Concordes?
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=43.623699,1.347526&z=19
There another A380 just north of the two first. I bet this one is not ready to fly yet
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=43.653016,1.356562&z=19
What the heck kind of wacky plane is this ?
That’s a Super Guppy, Airbus used to use that plane to transport airplane components.
Now, they use their own fleet of custom built Belugas
that superguppy and beluga are two of the wierdest/ugliest planes I have ever seen.
Just Wouaw ! I want one like that for my private collection ! 😉
Re: Concorde – yup that’s one: http://www.concordesst.com/209.html Here’s the other at Toulouse: View Placemark (43.616804,1.3570) – http://www.concordesst.com/201.html
esquif is right – there is a third one ready for painting to the north on the other side of the airport. Read ‘Hill’s post at the GEC for more details and an excellent GE file which provides details on where the wings are made, where the manufacturing is done, plane in flight concept drawings, etc.
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Number/17719
That Super Guppy is fantastic!
Has someone tagged all of those planes at the keyhole forums I wonder? ‘cos several of them look fascinating.
My god though, that Beluga is out of this world!
(Rushes off to check submissions queue…)
Funnily enough, there’s not one, but THREE Belugas at this very airport!
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=43.625058,1.357442&z=19 https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=43.625675,1.358508&z=19 https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=43.626579,1.356466&z=19
Although they actually look rather teeny compared to the A380!
Also to the Northwest just slightly over a kilometer away is another concorde. What a gorgeous plane they were.
Near the second concorde there are 3 aircraft without engines and directly behind them is a large hanger does anybody know if this is an assembly building or paint shop? Just curious.
Airbus employee 1: “Have you seen a couple of wings?” Airbus employee 2: “Nah! Wot they look like?’ Airbus employee 1: “Sort of big, white and wing shaped. I had them a minute ago. Ive put them down somewhere and cant find em. Its kinda important i find them” Airbus employee 2: “Nah! Sorry mate – cant help ya. I’m sure they will turn up”
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=43.66005,1.353024&z=19
Here’s the Super Guppy that NASA uses to transport spacecraft and ISS components. I think the previous imagery looked a little better, but this isn’t that bad. The “Vomet Comit” used for zero-g training is out and about somewhere else, but further north are a few F/A-18s. View Placemark
Alex, there is another Beluga #3 southeast of the other 3 https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=43.620334,1.361489&z=19
Airbus employee 3: “Hey guys, you haven’t seen a single wing, a tail or a cockpit have you?
Alex: Yes, that’s what I meant by “fleet” 🙂 Airbus actually built five Belugas, which are used mostly for their own transportation needs.
However, they can be rented for special transports too, see the Beluga page on airbus.com
This is the Airbus factory at Broughton near Chester UK where they make the wings for the A380 as well as smaller Airbus models
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=53.183845,-2.977724&z=16
The wings used to be transported once a week by Beluga to Toulouse and I think still are for the smaller models however the A380 is so big the wings travel first by road on a remotely controlled lorry, then they are tranferred to this barge
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=53.193362,-2.968073&z=18
then down the river Dee and the rest of the way to southern France by sea
@Cookie and Alex: Those aren’t spare parts. They’re the new stealth planes being produced by the French. Naturally, the cheese eating surender monkeys didn’t get the stealth to work properly.
Mrb – its a good job Broughton happened to be next to a river wasnt it …or they would be goosed wouldnt they? You can see the remote controlled lorry you talk about parked up near the barge in a turning area
Well I was wondering about that Cookie, whether it was the lorry or not, I haven’t seen it in person, only on Discovery and GSS. I will have a drive past next time I’m in Chester, probably in October.
According to Wikipedia, four of the five remaining Super Guppies are now mothballed. And here they are: Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire, UK: View Placemark Toulouse: View Placemark Finkenwerder, near Hamburg, Germany: View Placemark Pima Air and Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona, USA: View Placemark
The fifth Guppy is still in use by Nasa. Can anyone find it?
When you take a flight you have to be at the airport several hours before take off. If you take a flight from, or to Toulouse Blagnac Airport, you may have time to sit and view the runways from the public observation area inside the airport. The Airbus factories are just behind those runways, so you don’t really have to be very lucky to see an A380 landing or take off.
Last time I was there I saw a couple of landings & take-offs, and a touch-and-go landing. And that IS impressive. Especially when you have a ridiculously small plane landing at the same time on another runway :p
What is this structure? Map Link
Is it a radio facility? The taxi ways lead into it which make me think it is for testing the aircraft’s navigation radios.
Or is it just a plane sized drive in movie theatre?
Actually they don’t use the guppies any more for the A380 (according to wikipedia) … That why some parts lie around here after being unloaded from a barge a little to the north, and await their road convoy to Toulouse.
RE: the super guppy. Besides being huge and ugly, they have a unique way of lifting off. The rear takes off before the nose!
Here is a video: http://www.allaboutguppys.com/sg/377sgtos.mov
The movie comes from this site, http://www.allaboutguppys.com/sg/377sgf.htm, which has some great history and ground level pictures of super guppies.
Wow, that’s pretty crazy. With that kind of takeoff and how tall the fuselage is, there must be no room for crosswinds…
Flypast
@Michael – it’s incredible how such a huge machine has been around for sooo long! And I still think the Beluga is totally crazy looking!
@Mrb, that A380 video was awesome! It actually led me on to this video of the Antonov An-225 Mriya, whose size is simply staggering.
@Alex:
OMG, that Beluga looks like those aliens in “Mars Attacks!”…
Pretty cool Alex, I just find it hard to believe that the little airport near where I grew up now makes the wings for the A380.
I have a friend who works there now, working on the line making the wings, when the A380 first flew they made a killing selling rivets and other scrap bits on ebay!!
And another Concorde…
Finally, the fifth Super Guppy, courtesy of “JuanSe”, who sent me the link by e-mail: https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=29.598037,-95.167662&z=19
Hi, i just found another Beluga at Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport
View Placemark (53.535175,9.830682)
Anyone know what the writing on this wing says?
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=43.629631,1.351564&z=20
I have seen the movement of new Airbus 380 from all angles landing take off and taxying and very liked the flying machine . I found that Airbus Industrie made a very brilliant effort for the future in the world of aviation . A 380 is a superb and comprehensive flying machine in the world market with a very economical fuel consumption ,comfort and safety . Being as a fan of Airbus airplanes I deeply desire to convey my heartiest congratulations to team of Airbus 380 for there commited work . SALUTE TO AIRBUS INDUSTRIE