Goodbye to the A380, the Biggest Passenger Plane There Ever Was
It was just too large
By Rob Verger
The largest commercial passenger plane in the world, the A380, is a double-decker behemoth with four engines, a wingspan of 262 feet, and a cabin that can hold more than 500 people. It has enough space inside of it, Airbus says, to fit 35 million ping-pong balls, if you count its cargo hold along with its two main decks. It first left the ground in 2005, and on Valentine’s Day 2019, Airbus announced it would stop producing the aircraft. The last vessels will be delivered in 2021.
The official cause of death is a smaller-than-expected number of orders from Emirates Airlines, which is the largest operator of the craft — although it will still receive 14 new A380s between now and 2021.
“It’s a marvel of aviation to see an airplane that large, and that humans can make things that big fly,” reflected Richard Anderson, director of the Eagle Flight Research Center at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. By the standards of modern jets, the A380’s production lifespan — it first flew commercially in 2007 — is short. The 747, in comparison, first flew in 1969 and Boeing still has orders to fill.
William Crossley, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University, says ultimately…
