Private cabins, flying bars, and hundreds of seats—farewell, Airbus A380

  • In 2005 the first A380 was unveiled at the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France.
    Pascal Le Segretain|Getty Images
  • This is the first time an A380 took to the skies. The aircraft’s maiden flight was on April 27, 2005 in Toulouse.
    Pascal Le Segretain|Getty Images
  • Cold weather testing of the A380. Anyone else feel the desire to photoshop some AT-ATs or maybe a snow speeder or two in there?
  • Four A380 prototypes on a test flight in 2006.
  • A BA A380 flies in formation with the RAF Red Arrows.
    British Airways
  • A naked A380 takes to the sky.
  • An evacuation test using just eight of the A380’s emergency slides.
  • Employees work on the interior fuselage section of an Airbus A380 aircraft during assembly at the company’s factory in Hamburg, Germany, on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011.
    Jason Alden/Bloomberg|Getty Images
  • An A380 tailplane, painted in Etihad’s livery, being transported to the main assembly factory in Toulouse, France.
  • A Quantas A380 and a Singapore Airlines A380, ready to be handed over to the airlines at Toulouse Blagnac Airport in France.
  • Airbus’ booth at the 2017 Paris airshow is a good illustration of the A380’s size.
  • This ANA livery took longer to paint than any other A380 paint job.
  • The A380 is often accused of looking hydrocephalic because Airbus put the cockpit on the lower level. That may be true, but the complex geometry of its wing is pure art.
  • Malaysia Airlines and the Royal Malaysian Air Force flying in formation.
  • The A380 cockpit. I’m not sure if the sheepskin seat covers are standard, or just an Emirates thing.
    Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto|Getty Images
  • Oh, I guess they all have sheepskin seats. This is the cockpit of a British Airways A380.
    British Airways
  • Some A380 operators configure them to offer a bar to business and first class passengers. This is the bar on an Emirates Airlines A380.
    Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto|Getty Images
  • First class in an Emirates A380.
    Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto|Getty Images
  • One of the bigger bathrooms aboard an Emirates A380.
    Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto|Getty Images
  • No, this isn’t a shot of someone’s quarters on NCC-1701D, it’s is a promo shot of Singapore Airline’s new first class suite. Lee Hutchinson says he’s determined to try out the suite (or maybe Emirates version) at least once before he’s too infirm to leave the sofa. “Preferably without even a stop—just get off one plane and get back on the other. that way i don’t even have to care about the time zones or do any clock adjustment,” he told Ars.
    Singapore Airlines
  • Yet another insane Singapore Airlines A380 suite. I think I agree with Lee on this one
    Nicky Loh/Bloomberg|Getty Images
  • Ok, you saw the official Singapore Airlines press shots, now this is what it actually looks like.
    James D. Morgan|Getty Images
  • This is what a Singapore Airlines first class suite looked like in 2009.
    Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg News|Getty Images
  • Singapore Airlines also has a rather fancy bathroom in first class upstairs.
    James D. Morgan|Getty Images
  • Thai Airways’ A380 business class cabin is extremely purple.
  • British Airways business class on an A380 can feel a little dour.
    British Airways
  • British Airways’ first A380 arrives at Heathrow Airport in 2013.
    Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg|Getty Images
  • Three jet bridges connect to an Emirates Airlines A380 at JFK. Not every airport is able to accommodate these massive carbon composite skywhales.
    STAN HONDA/AFP|Getty Images
  • This must be downstairs on a Lufthansa Airbus 380 because it’s a 3-4-3 layout.
    Wolfgang von Brauchitsch/Bloomberg News|Getty Images
  • Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg|Getty Images

On Valentine’s Day, Airbus confirmed that production of the massive A380 airliner will come to an end, breaking some plane nerds’ hearts. When it was unveiled to the world in 2005, Airbus touted its efficiency over twin-engined long-haul planes, but this mighty carbon-fiber double-decker never lived up to expectations. Not all airports could accommodate its physical size, and getting the self-loading cargo on and off could take a while.

Unlike the 747, it doesn’t appear set to have a continued career carrying cargo, either. You’d expect the biggest passenger plane of the skies to make a pretty decent freighter. But there’s no folding nose variant, so you can’t take full advantage of its commodious interior to carry really big stuff. In 2021, the last A380 will depart final assembly in Toulouse, France. By then, more than 300 of these carbon composite skywhales should have been delivered, and so we expect they’ll remain a regular sight at airports they already service.

The Airbus superjumbo never really captured the public’s heart the way the 747 has, and there’s no denying the decision to put the cockpit on the lower deck gives the plane a hydrocephalic appearance. But the complex curvature of the wing is a thing of beauty, and it’s always wonderful to see something so large land so gracefully. (If you time your visit to the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy annex for the right time of day, you can watch them come in up on the observation deck.)

Flying long-distance in an A380 can be an opulent affair. Both Singapore Airlines and Emirates have private first class suites on board, and the flying bar—first seen on the original jumbo jet—has made something of a comeback, too. The promo shots have a certain air of “crew quarters on NCC-1701D,” although you’ll see from the gallery (or on YouTube) that they’re a little smaller than that. Further aft things are more spartan, and pick the upper deck because the 2-4-2 layout is less cramped than downstairs’ 3-4-3.

I’ve only been fortunate enough to fly an A380 once (of late 747s appear to be the preferred type for Dulles to Heathrow). But that one trip made me fall for the big plastic bird. It was a quiet and smooth ride, and the bathrooms at the front of the upper deck were bigger than the bathrooms of some houses I’ve lived in. Here’s to you, you majestic flying cruise liner.

Listing image by Airbus

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1457497