Having completed just under two months of flight-testing since its maiden sortie, the A380 made its air show debut at Le Bourget with a 7min flying display during each day of the show. With Airbus chief test pilot Jacques Rosay and captain Wolfgang Absmeier at the controls, the Rolls-Royce Trent 900-powered A380 flew a spirited routine that highlighted its manouevrability and quietness, despite its size. Unusually, the undercarriage was not retracted in case an earlier snag with microswitch adjustment recurred, which could have delayed the performance. Part of the display included Airbus’s usual slow fly-by, which saw the aircraft pass down the runway at around 120kt (220km/h) at 800ft (245m). Meanwhile, Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard says the A380 has completed over 100h of flight testing and has “behaved very well” up to its maximum operating speed of Mach 0.89 and its 43,000ft maximum altitude. It has also made its first automatic landing.
Source: Flight International
