The largest passenger aircraft to date is the luxurious and imposing Airbus A380. From the outside, it looks like a fairly ordinary passenger liner. However, inside this flying machine there really is something to see. Alas, despite all the efforts of the engineers, the initiative to build such a giant actually turned out to be a failure. Why did it all turn out so badly?
The French know how to make planes. It's not just that Airbus remains one of the leading manufacturers of aviation technology in the world. However, everything does not always work out as it should, and the situation with the Airbus A380 is the best illustration of this. The newest wide-body double-deck 4-engine turbojet passenger aircraft made its first flight in 2005 and entered service in 2007. In a three-class configuration, the liner takes on board 525 passengers, and in a single-class configuration can accommodate 853 passengers. This makes the A380 the largest aircraft in its class. At the same time, the car is capable of covering a distance of 15,400 km without refueling.
The main operators of the aircraft are Emirates Airlines, Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Qantas. Airliners of this class are "stuffed" strictly at the request of the customer. That is why in some places their content looks in the best traditions of "expensive and rich". For example, the Arabs once ordered for themselves an A380 with a waterfall inside! Most cars of this class have a duty free shop right on board. Each passenger can get a sleep mask, warm socks, and a set of stickers for flight attendants, which tell you when to wake a particular passenger. On some planes, there are even bars and cafes on board.
Every seat, even in economy class, is equipped with several USB ports for connecting gadgets. There are showers and spacious bathrooms on board. A stable Wi-Fi network is provided inside the aircraft. The seats vary greatly depending on the class. In "first" and "business" they are widely spaced and can actually be transformed into a bed. In the economy department, everything is much more modest.
The A380 planes became a real triumph for the French engineering genius and at the same time proved to be absolutely unprofitable. The development program cost Airbus 12 billion euros. In order to just cover the costs, the company needs to make and sell about 500 aircraft. At the same time, from 2003 to 2020 inclusive, only 246 machines were created. And in 2021, the French even announced the closure of the A380 program. The planes turned out to be so unclaimed for a banal reason: most often companies do not need such giants. Better to buy and make fly two or three smaller planes, but on different routes.
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