Airbus A380 Production » First Flight

A380 Production Update: July 2010 (#16)

Oliver Gigacz — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:45:50 +0000

Thursday saw the roll out Air France’s sixth A380 (MSN064).

MSN064 took four months to complete Final Assembly with all major componets arriving in Toulouse by late March. First flight is currently scheduled for early September. Delivery to Air France will be in Q2 2011.

Today, Lufthansa’s fifth A380 (MSN061) will perform her first flight, after a months long stay on the Toulouse flightline.

Image Courtesy of Schiefi

A380 Production Update: July 2010 (#12)

Oliver Gigacz — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:17:01 +0000

Several aviation forums are reporting that Emirates will be suspending A380 deliveries in 2011. We cannot yet confirm or deny this, but current production schedules still state that the airline will receive three A380s in Q3/Q4 2011 (MSN060, MSN077 and MSN080).

If Emirates were to suspend deliveries this would halt the airline deploying the A380 on key routes such as Dubai to Melbourne and Dubai to Singapore.

Over in Toulouse, Singapore Airlines twelfth A380 (MSN058) has successfully performed her first flight. This also happened to be her ferry flight to Hamburg for cabin outfitting.

Image Courtesy of Schiefi

A380 Production Update: July 2010 (#11)

Oliver Gigacz — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 06:27:28 +0000

Singapore Airlines twelfth A380 (MSN058) has begun taxi tests, following successful engines runs earlier in the week.

First flight is likely to occur on Friday.

Image Courtesy of Jaques Meursault

A380 Production Update: July 2010 (#8)

Oliver Gigacz — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:42:30 +0000

Just a quick update to finish the week off:

Qantas’s ninth A380 (MSN055) finally made it’s first flight yesterday, after a long seven week wait on the flightline.

MSN055 is now in Hamburg and will soon be towed to an outfitting hangar.

Image Courtesy of matze-man

A380 Production Update: July 2010 (#6)

Oliver Gigacz — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:13:08 +0000

Yesterday, Qantas’s ninth A380 (MSN055) performed her first engine tests after a near one and a half month wait on the flightline.

First flight is scheduled for July 12th. Her first flight will also be her ferry flight to Hamburg.

Image Courtesy of matze-man

A380 Production Update: July 2010 (#1)

Oliver Gigacz — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:02:33 +0000

Yesterday, Qantas’s eighth A380 (MSN050) finally transferred to Hamburg. A mere ten months after first flight*.

Delivery is currently scheduled for January 2011, But rumors are going around that she will be delivered in December.

Image Courtesy of David BARRIE

*(MSN050 was stored from August 09 to May 10)

A380 Production Update: June 2010 (#14)

Oliver Gigacz — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:48:49 +0000

In the early hours of last Friday, Airbus rolled out Lufthansa’s fifth A380 (MSN061) from Final Assembly.

First flight and transfer is currently scheduled for the 30th July.

Today will see MSN050 (Qantas #8) transfer to Hamburg. Here she is being towed back from the engine test bay.

Images Courtesy of David BARRIE and Antonio ESPOSITO

A380 Production Update: June 2010 (#6)

Oliver Gigacz — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:46:10 +0000

Emirates’s fifteenth A380 (MSN057) performed her first flight on June 11th, This also happened to be her ferry flight to Hamburg.

MSN046 (Emirates #12) has been rolled out of the Hamburg outfitting hangars and is now situated on the flightline next to MSN041 (Lufthansa #2). Delivery is currently scheduled for July 23rd.

Image Courtesy of David BARRIE

A380 Production Update: June 2010 (#3)

Oliver Gigacz — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 05:39:20 +0000

There have been a couple of small changes to the flight schedule…

MSN050 (Qantas #8) is now scheduled to ferry to Hamburg on June 23.
MSN055 (Qantas #9) is now scheduled to perform her first and ferry flight on July 2.

Both of these frames will now be delivered in Q1 2011.

A couple of online news sites are reporting that MSN009 (Emirates #10) has been delivered. We cannot find any records of this, so we are treating it as a rumor. If this is true, MSN009 would be the 30th A380 delivered.

Image Courtesy of matze-man

A380 Production Update: May 2010 (#16)

Oliver Gigacz — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:46:28 +0000

A photo has been uploaded to flickr which is giving us a good look at what is going on in the “Stage 2″ area of Final Assembly.

The three frames that can be seen in this photo are MSN065 (Singapore Airlines #13), MSN064 (Air France #6) and MSN071 (Singapore Airlines #14). All of these frames still have quite a lot of work to go, So we won’t expect to see them on the flightline for a month or two.

We can confirm that MSN057 (Emirates #15) will be the next A380 to transfer to Hamburg, as MSN052 (Air France #5) still has part of it’s APU missing and MSN055 (Qantas #9) is missing at least one escape slide.

Images Courtesy of matze-man