A380 Visits Heathrow For The First Time

There was a time when a plane launched from a French airfield would face an unpleasant reception as it flew low over the aircraft-components factories of Broughton in North Wales, and Filton in coastal Bristol, England. Barrage balloons, anti-aircraft guns, and marauding eight-gun Hurricanes... but that was then and this is now, and now the continental invader is the very welcome Airbus A380.

The record-setting jet made its first visit to Britain this week, as reported by brief items in various British papers on Thursday. The British plants are vital to Airbus Industrie; all wings for the company's jets, among other vital components, are designed and built in Britain.

It's fair to say that thousands of British jobs -- good manufacturing jobs, of the sort that are fewer and fewer in Western economies -- depend on Airbus's new products, including the A380, the world's largest passenger plane. That explains why thousands of workers stood outside and cheered the mammoth jet as it flew overhead; for most of the workers, it not only was a rare chance to see what they had built "in the wild," it also represented for them promise and hope of a future.

After buzzing the cheering plant workers, the A380 headed to at Heathrow (ELHR) where it was first greeted, as it descended out of the cloudy sky, by that British institution, planespotters.

And as it taxied in, Airbus test pilot Ed Strongman, a Briton (naturally!), extended a Union Jack out the window, before guiding the jet into a new gate, Pier 6 at Terminal 3, specially rebuilt for the double-decker giant at a cost of over a hundred million UK pounds. (The rebuild project began in May 2004; ultimately Heathrow will have nine A380-ready piers.)

The VIP crowd meeting the big 'Bus included politicians, airline executives, and airport officials. To the relief of all, the airplane did indeed fit into the new gate -- one of the official reasons for the visit was to confirm that detail. (That sudden sound of exhalation was a group of British architects and engineers relaxing).

Airbus explained to the press that it saw the A380s as flying the trunk routes of a worldwide hub and spoke system; at the trunk hubs, passengers would transfer to smaller aircraft to travel to smaller airports. Conversely, Boeing's approach with the mid-sized 787 Dreamliner envisions a point-to-point air route system. Small surprise, then, that the radically different next-generation jetliners appeal to different airlines, from different parts of the world.

While most people are most interested in the superlative size of the A380, it's incrementally, not vastly, larger than the venerable 747. What makes it interesting to aviation and manufacturing people is its use of new technology to make it more economical, efficient and environmentally friendly. For example, novel materials (at least in commercial aviation applications) like lithium alloy parts and GLARE (GLAss-REinforced Fiber Metal Laminate) skin are used.

Not everybody was thrilled with the design aesthetics of the functional A380; the Telegraph's David Millward called it "a squat beast with the build of a rugby prop forward." He reported mostly negative reactions from others, including "stubby and fat," "Cuban cigar," and "obesity problem."

Millward also noted that Heathrow managing director Tony Douglas, and engineer, and former British Airways Concorde chief pilot Mike Bannister, liked it. "There are no straight lines on it at all!" Douglas marveled, and Bannister especially admired the wings -- and noted, "there are plans for a stretch version and that will look much prettier."

Airbus has 159 firm orders for the airplane, from 16 airlines, and the next open delivery slot is in 2011. Singapore Airlines, the launch customer, expects to have their first airplane in revenue service before year's end. Qantas and Emirates are right behind. Over the life of the project, Airbus hopes to sell up to 700 of the machines, in passenger and dedicated freight versions.

FMI: www.airbus.com