An Airbus A380 on an Asian demonstration tour touched down at Hong Kong International Airport yesterday, and this morning conducted a low-level flypast, despite having sustaining minor damage in an incidentat Bangkok on Saturday.

At 8am local time, the Airbus A380 flew over Victoria Harbour and appeared to be around 1400ft asl (430m), a similar height to the IFC Two building, the tallest in Hong Kong.

The Airbus A380 is in Hong Kong as part of a tour covering several Asian cities, and coincides with the Asian Aerospace International Expo and Congress organised by Flight’s sister company Reed Exhibitions.

A380 without wing tip fences 6

Before landing in Hong Kong, the Airbus A380 suffered minor damage following a minor incident when its left wingtip fence came into contact with a Thai Airways International maintenance building while being moved to its departure point at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport.

According to reports from Bangkok, the airport’s departure for the northern city of Chiang Mai was delayed for several hours as a result of the incident. The aircraft departed after both wingtip fences were removed.

A380 without wing tip fences 5

Thai Airways International officials are quoted as saying the incident occurred because support staff were not familiar with the ultra-large aircraft, the first of which is due to go into service in October with launch operator Singapore Airlines.

A380 without wing tip fences 3


The Airbus A380 has wingtip fences rather than winglets. There is a difference.
Basically winglets help to reduce induced drag and improve performance (also increases aspect ratio slightly). However, the Airbus A380 has very large wing area due to the large wingspan that gives it a high aspect ratio. So, it has no need to worry about aspect ratio but only to tackle the induced drag problem. Therefore, it does not require the winglets, but merely “wingtip fences” similar to those of the Airbus A320.

Related articles and websites:

Asian Aerospace homepage
Everything about the Airbus A380
Airbus
Flight's commercial aircraft directory
Check out Flight's A380 Blogs

See more related articles to the right.....

 

Source: Flight Daily News

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