Airbus has released photographs of the 'virtual first flight' of the A380 it completed yesterday, including the first images of the emergency briefing.
The aircraft, manufacturer's serial number 002, was equipped with a three class configuration similar to a typical customer layout, and performed a static test of the onboard systems. The aircraft was boarded with 474 passengers and 20 crew members, who simulated a 5h flight.
The images released by Airbus show the safety briefing, given by a Lufthansa cabin crew accompanied by Airbus cabin trainers. The A380 safety card shown below is the first image of the card, which was given to volunteers of the evacuation trial. The card was passed unchanged by US and European authorities, who gave the trial, in which 853 passengers evacuated an A380 simulator in 75s, the green light last month.
|
 |
Airbus says passengers on board the aircraft were given "individual tasks to perform at certain intervals in order to simulate a maximum stress on certain cabin systems". Some passengers brought laptop computers to test the performance of the in-seat power supply (pictured below).
Charles Champion, head of the A380 programme for Airbus says: “The result of the cabin test has shown that all systems were running smoothly. The feedback from our passengers was excellent.”
Source: Flight International
