A380 in production

As to not disturb a pee-pee contest in another thread, I thought I'd share
what I've found on the internet regarding where the A380 production is.

A few different (unofficial) places in the internet give the following
sequence.

MSN000 (MSN5000)
Static Test aircraft, will never fly, will never have systems installed,
will never have full gear Assembly, in short will never be a complete
aircraft.

MSN001
This will be the first aircraft to fly and that will happen in January
2005, this will be used for Airframe and systems testing, including flight
envelope trials, it will also be retained by Airbus and will never pass to
a customer.

MSN004
This will be used for similar testing to 001 but will ultimately be
reconfigured for delivery to an airline.

MSN002
Full interior for cabin tests - will carry out early long-range flights,
will ultimately be reconfigured for delivery to an airline.

MSN007
Test equipment and full cabin interior, will ultimately be reconfigured for
delivery to Singapore Airlines.

MSN003 / F-WWSA
First Aircraft for Delivery to an Airline, in this case, Singapore Airlines

MSN005 / F-WWSB
Second Aircraft for Singapore Airlines

MSN006 / F-WWSC
Third Aircraft for Singapore Airlines

MSN008
Fourth Aircraft for Singapore Airlines

MSN009
First GP7000 powered aircraft, will ultimately go to Emirates but it will
not be the first they receive as it will be retained for further
participation in the certification programme

Note MSN000-MSN008 will all be Trent 970 powered

The first aircraft for QANTAS will be MSN014, the first for Air France will
be MSN017 and the first for Malaysian will be MSN022. All other aircraft
are yet to be (publically) allocated.

Source: http://www.ifdg.net/forum/lofiversio...php/t4122.html

--

Here's some piccies of 002 and 004..

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/656144/L/

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/687497/L/

A list of all A380-841 photos in the a.net db:

http://www.airliners.net/search/phot...Airbus%20A380-
841&distinct_entry=true

And yes, before anyone asks, they were taken in a Hollywood movie studio.

--lw--

On 24 Dec 2004 15:18:53 GMT, Lee Witten wrote:

As to not disturb a pee-pee contest in another thread, I thought I'd share
what I've found on the internet regarding where the A380 production is.

A few different (unofficial) places in the internet give the following
sequence.

MSN000 (MSN5000)
Static Test aircraft, will never fly, will never have systems installed,
will never have full gear Assembly, in short will never be a complete
aircraft.

MSN001
This will be the first aircraft to fly and that will happen in January
2005, this will be used for Airframe and systems testing, including flight
envelope trials, it will also be retained by Airbus and will never pass to
a customer.


Unfortunately your info is incorrect. It may be the first aircraft to
fly, but that will not happen in January.
--==++AJC++==--

rk wrote:
I was reading in Aerospace Testing International (Dec., 2004) about the A380
being shipped for fatigue tests, which are to start in September 2005 and run
for around 26 months. Lots of parts are not included such as engines, onboard
electronics, vertical tail plane, etc.

Considering the aircraft enters commercial service in 2006, and considering
that there are already pictures on airliners.net showing the initial plane
(MSN 0) in the fatique test rig, I somehow doubt that September 2005 is when
fatique tests will start. September 2004 may have been the correct date.

It is not unusual for the first unit to not have any flight
instrumentation/systems in it since it is to be destructively tested to
measure exactly how much stress it can take. There would however be plenty of
instruments in it to measure stress, flexing etc.

You need to remember that the testing tests not only the plane, but the
ability of the tooling to build something which matches what had been
designed. So it is important to use the same tooling, rigs etc for both the
test units and the units that are to fly commercially. They're not testing
prototypes, they're testing the first units that roll off the assembly line.

If you have followed this programme for years, you would know that prototype
components have been tested a long time ago. This applies to wings, fully
composite elevators (roughly the size of a 737's wing), landing gear, cold
welding of fuselage parts etc. Airbus is now at the stage of testing
production output.

The beast will not be mass produced. The manufacturing process will not be as
automated as for the 340/330/320 families.

AJC wrote:

Unfortunately your info is incorrect. It may be the first aircraft to
fly, but that will not happen in January.

I heard may and march as date of first flights. However, Airbus seems to be
mounting quite the PR event for January 18th.

This unit will be outfitted with plenty of monitoring equipment. Not sure is
this is done during production, or if it will be done once the production
folks hand over the finished A380s (on January 18th).

If they want to make a big show at the air show in June, my guess is that may
is way too late for its first flight.

I know this is off topic, but is a freighter version ever planned for
the A380? If so, I am surprised that the cockpit is not on the upper
deck. Isn't the reason for the 747 having an upper deck at all so it
could have the front open for easy load and unload? Aslo, my opinion
of the overall proportions of the A380 is that it looks like a big
737. I wonder what the acceleration will be. Last time I was on an
A340, it felt like we were going to stall on take off. Didn't like
that feeling. Maybe I am just used to MD-80 series which seem to
accelerate and climb pretty quickly.

I know this is off topic, but is a freighter version ever planned for
the A380? If so, I am surprised that the cockpit is not on the upper
deck. Isn't the reason for the 747 having an upper deck at all so it
could have the front open for easy load and unload? Aslo, my opinion
of the overall proportions of the A380 is that it looks like a big
737. I wonder what the acceleration will be. Last time I was on an
A340, it felt like we were going to stall on take off. Didn't like
that feeling. Maybe I am just used to MD-80 series which seem to
accelerate and climb pretty quickly.

Mike wrote:

I know this is off topic, but is a freighter version ever planned for
the A380? If so, I am surprised that the cockpit is not on the upper
deck. Isn't the reason for the 747 having an upper deck at all so it
could have the front open for easy load and unload?

Yep. FedEx was one of the A380 launch customers. The reason that the 747F has a
front ramp is that it was designed to compete with the C-5 and the USAF had a
drive on/off requirement.

Frieghter customers already have the infrastructure to support pallet loading
from the side, so there is no need to take the weight and complexity hit that a
tilt up nose would impose. Besides, you'd still have to load the mid & upper
deck somehow!

"Mike" wrote in message
...
I know this is off topic, but is a freighter version ever planned for
the A380? If so, I am surprised that the cockpit is not on the upper
deck. Isn't the reason for the 747 having an upper deck at all so it
could have the front open for easy load and unload? Aslo, my opinion
of the overall proportions of the A380 is that it looks like a big
737. I wonder what the acceleration will be. Last time I was on an
A340, it felt like we were going to stall on take off. Didn't like
that feeling. Maybe I am just used to MD-80 series which seem to
accelerate and climb pretty quickly.

While the A340-300 is possibly one of the most underpowered modern planes
(its pilots call its engines hairdryers) the sister plane the A330 is one of
the most overpowered plans. Many airlines only allows their pilots to use
2/3 power to take off even with a full load!

Nik

"Mike" wrote in message
...
I know this is off topic, but is a freighter version ever planned for
the A380? If so, I am surprised that the cockpit is not on the upper
deck. Isn't the reason for the 747 having an upper deck at all so it
could have the front open for easy load and unload? Aslo, my opinion
of the overall proportions of the A380 is that it looks like a big
737. I wonder what the acceleration will be. Last time I was on an
A340, it felt like we were going to stall on take off. Didn't like
that feeling. Maybe I am just used to MD-80 series which seem to
accelerate and climb pretty quickly.

While the A340-300 is possibly one of the most underpowered modern planes
(its pilots call its engines hairdryers) the sister plane the A330 is one of
the most overpowered plans. Many airlines only allows their pilots to use
2/3 power to take off even with a full load!

Nik

Mike wrote:

I know this is off topic, but is a freighter version ever planned for
the A380?

Yep, to be delivered a bit later. FedEx is first customer (and I think only
customer for now).

They are not interested in a cavernous aircraft like the Antonov 124s. They
want something that can carry lots of containers, so having 2 floors is good.

The cockpit of the 380 looks quite odd, with a disproportional "forehead" for
lack of better word. (they should have put a skylight in the forehead which
would have added to the "grandeur" of the grand staircase hallway.)

Airbus wanted the cockpit to be low enough for good pilot visibility.
(although they already need/have cameras to look from different points of view).