Like the legendary "900lb gorilla in the room", it's here at Le Bourget and it cannot be ignored. The Airbus A380 has no rival as the star of this year's show.
Nobody doubted that the double-deck, 555-seat leviathan would cause a stir, but few will have predicted the scale of the interest by the industry and the public in its first appearance away from the Airbus base in Toulouse.
It was there, on 27 April this year, that MSN 001 made its maiden flight with an astonishing 50,000 spectators cramming the area to watch. No doubt there was a hard core of anoraks, but most were future passengers and those inspired by the first flight of the aircraft, which has spawned an aviation and industrial epic.
"The whole thing was an incredible and fantastic surprise," says Gerard Blanc, Airbus executive vice-president, Operations. "There were so many people who normally have little to do with aviation. The interest that this machine has created around the world is unprecedented.
"Usually, passengers have no idea of what type of aircraft they are entering, the exceptions in recent times being the Boeing 747 and Concorde. Joining these two aircraft will be the A380 which everyone will recognise instantly when they board it."
And they came out in force just to watch that maiden flight, recalling the carnival atmosphere at Cape Canaveral during some of the Saturn V or Shuttle space launches.
All eyes are now firmly on the flight test phase of the programme. The first flight lasted 3h 54min and MSN 001 took off at a weight of 421t (928,300lbs), the highest ever of any civil airliner.
She was jointly captained by Claude Lelaie, senior vice-president, Flight Division and by Jacques Rosay, Airbus chief test pilot and vice-president. The other crew members were Fernando Alonso, vice-president, Flight Division, Flight Test Engineering, who led a team of two other flight test engineers, Jacky Joye and Manfred Birnfeld and test flight engineer Gerard Desbois.
Powered by four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, the A380 flew its maiden flight around south-west France.
Direct
During the flight, the crew tested the A380's handling using both direct and normal flight control laws, with landing gear up and down, and with all flaps and slats settings while at cruise altitude.
With members of the flight test team located at workstations positioned on the upper deck, an initial evaluation of the comfort levels on both decks was made.
Lelaie, speaking after the sixth test flight (a total of 27 flight hours), says the results have been positive.
"A new thing is that the flight test engineers' station is on the upper deck. This enables us to look at comfort and noise levels. It is not just about flying this aircraft but checking the noise levels and vibration. We need to detect issues like this as soon as possible," he says.
He adds that the test programme to date has seen the flight test envelope opening completed and the aircraft operated from stall warning up to maximum operational speed. The maximum altitude of up to FL430 has been reached.
Says Gerard Blanc: "It is important to make the point that apart from small hiccups, so far the aerodynamic qualities of the aircraft are close to perfect. The control loads are close to perfect.
"The pilots already report good aircraft comfort at cruise speed."
For the programme, "ground control" is a top-security telemetry centre at the Airbus base. The centre takes real-time data downlinked from the aircraft in flight which is then subject to real-time data analysis by a team of systems specialists.
In the colossal final assembly plant at the Airbus base, four other aircraft are being finished before they enter the flight trials programme. MSN 001, equipped with heavy instrumentation, is being used to explore handling, systems and performance. The next four are:
MSN 004 (second aircraft) which will be similarly equipped with heavy test instrumentation and will used to study the same issues as the first flight test aircraft.
MSN 002 (third aircraft) which will have a full cabin fitted (at the Airbus facility in Hamburg) and will be used for initial cabin development and early passenger flights.
MSN 007 (fourth aircraft) which will also have a full cabin fitted and be used for cabin evaluations and route proving.
MSN 009 (fifth aircraft) which will be fitted with the other engine being offered on the type, the Engine Alliance GP7200.
Looking ahead to the cabin development phase of the flight test programme, Lelaie says that experience from the A340-600 programme is the basis for the approach on the A380.
Cabin
"On the A340-600 programme, the entry into service was very good. We tested early to find out what the problems with the cabin were," he says. "We will have a lot of passengers on board to test all the equipment like the galleys and the Iin-Flight Entertainment.
"The A340-600 flights lasted from 7-15h and we learned a lot of lessons from them. This we are applying to the A380 programme."
Were there any issues related to flying an aircraft of that size?
"Obviously with the increase in size there are some facts that you cannot remove, such as when youare on the ground, but apart from that you would never know you were flying a large aircraft."
Source: Flight Daily News
