Posted on 04/27/2005 12:41:16 AM PDT by HAL9000
France: first take-off for the A380 Airbus
Toulouse-blagnac - the Airbus A380, the giant plane of the European manufacturer, should take its first take-off of Toulouse-Blagnac this morning. Larger apparatus of line of the world, it is able to transport between 555 and 800 passengers according to the versions.
The flight will not take place, towards 10h30, only if the visibility is perfect and that if the wind is not violent. The takeoff of A380, the most critical phase of the flight, is in addition interdict in direction of the town of Toulouse.
The Toulouse factories of Airbus and the registered office of the European manufacturer will stop their activities to allow the some 12 000 paid present to be pilot takeoff of their "child". Elsewhere in France and Europe, the teams of Airbus will be able to observe the flight on screens or Internet site of the manufacturer.
With the accesses of the airport one counted already Tuesday evening of the hundreds of vehicles, in particular of the camp-site bus sometimes come by far, parked with the accesses of the tracks not to lose a crumb of the spectacle. Nearly 50 000 people on the whole are waited around the site to admire takeoff. The flight should last a few hours, in direction of the Pyrenees.
CNN USA is airing it now
The spot reporter on CNN sounds like he's got a plunger rammed up his backside.
That's Richard Quest, he has a very strange style, I like him, huge teeth!
I'm watching on CNBC (they are simulcasting CNBCW).
He used to cover business from NY for BBC world before he came to CNN. The BBC business show used to be quite good. Believe it or not...
Cheers.
I'm watching...live... is this bird going fly or not?
I like him, he has an odd accent, not yorkshire, not too posh, hard to place.
Yep! Should be taking off in 5 minutes.
There was a time when BBC altogether (radio and TV) used to be quite good.
Those people gathered out there to watch?
What the heck is the big deal?
History in the making!
The noise sounds similar to my neighbor's power tools and they need lubricating.
Take off!
They still make good comedies :-)
However, their news broadcasts should unfortuntaly not be one of them.
I was just about to leave, but think I have to watch this.
Quite exiting. Here goes..
Cheers
It's taxi-ing and their clapping? Don't they expect it to take off?
their = they're - DUH...lol.. it's the beer.
It's flying! LOL!!
Very nice, I hope they bring it to PHX for hot weather performance testing, Boeing did that with the 777 and 747-400 (in primer green!), but they will probably do it in Tunesia or somewhere closer to home.
The article says "The Toulouse factories of Airbus and the registered office of the European manufacturer will stop their activities to allow the some 12 000 paid present to be pilot takeoff of their "child"."
Doesn't look like they figured out how to retract the gear yet...
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