[Prophet in the wilderness]

What most people don't know is ?
On a new airplane design and program, the first few planes are only for test purposes.
The first Aflop-380 is only a prototype and will probably never go into passenger or freight service.
The 2nd plane will be tested and literally broken into pieces to test the engineering limits of it's design.
At least the first 3-4 planes will be for testing.
Me thinks that what is going on behind closed doors ( away from the publics eye and the media's eyes ) is the AirRUST people and the airlines people are having very hot arguments about the so called " Performance " promises.
What is probably going on is, after the first initial " TEST FLIGHTS " and the data from them, the airlines are not happy with the performance numbers ( in spite of what we heard in the news that the A-380 is performing as expected ) and the airlines are telling AirRUST to get the numbers that they ( AirRUST ) promised.
I don't believe what we heard in the news for the reasons of the delay of another 6 months for the delivery dates on the A-380 is because of the interior suppliers are late getting up to speed on the interiors for the Aflop-380 --- what do you think the PR people are for ?
These 6 months is going to be a weight cutting diet program for the A-380 to bring down the weight of the airplane, and AirRust is wringing their hands over were to cut the weight down on the Aflop-380 without jeopardizing the airworthiness of the A-380.

[Paleo Conservative]

What most people don't know is ?
On a new airplane design and program, the first few planes are only for test purposes.

The 747 prototype -- which actually was a production aircraft -- was the only 747 not delivered to a customer. All the other 747's used in the test program were eventually refurbished and delivered to the airlines. The 777 prototype was refurbish and sold to Cathay Pacific Airways. Considering the first 777 test flights started 11 years ago, why can't Airbus build a prototype that can be deliverable as an airliner?

[cpdiii]

AirRust is wringing their hands over were to cut the weight down on the Aflop-380 without jeopardizing the airworthiness of the A-380.

I hope the do not try to save weight on the structural members of the vertical stabilizer.

[stefan10]

Feel free to post your inside knowledge about the testing results here.

this plane is a great achievement and i don´t care who produced it i am just looking forward to see it and i will.

[sam_paine]

... without jeopardizing the airworthiness of the A-380.

Too late!

[Central Scrutiniser]

Wrong, all the planes built will go into service, there is no prototype. The second will not be broken into pieces. I don't know where you get your information from, but its not from any knowledge of airplanes.

Airbus will be doing flight testing on the first 5 planes, they are all the same, no prototype. 2500 hours of flights, with one plane engined with GE/PW GP7200 engines, and the others with the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines.

First plane goes to Singapore airlines, and will be in service in the last quarter of 2006. Good article about the first flight and testing program in this month's Air Transport World.

As for the name calling of Airbus, pretty childish.