Airbus A380 Production » MSN063

A380 Production Update: November 2011 (#14)

Oliver Gigacz — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 02:50:24 +0000

Yesterday, Airbus delivered Qantas’ eleventh A380 (MSN063) at a ceremony in Toulouse.

Her delivery flight is routing Toulouse to Sydney via Singapore. MSN063′s sister ship, MSN074, is currently in Toulouse for final testing before delivery in early December.

Once both are in service, they will allow Qantas to run daily Melbourne to Los Angeles flights.

Image Copyright to A380_TLS

A380 Production Update: November 2011 (#6)

Oliver Gigacz — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 06:35:29 +0000

Yesterday, Qantas’s eleventh A380 (MSN063) performed a check flight, prior to delivery next week.

Image Copyright to A380_TLS

A380 Production Update: November 2011 (#3)

Oliver Gigacz — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:40:10 +0000

Yesterday, Qantas’ eleventh A380 (MSN063) was ferried to Toulouse in preparation for delivery.

Qantas is expecting delivery late next week.

Image Copyright to A380_TLS

A380 Production Update: November 2011 (#1)

Oliver Gigacz — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 06:00:38 +0000

Yesterday, Qantas’ eleventh A380 (MSN063) began cabin flight testing.

Qantas will take delivery of the frame later in the month.

Image Copyright to olischa

A380 Production Update: October 2011 (#15)

Oliver Gigacz — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:36:42 +0000

Qantas’ eleventh A380 (MSN063) is expected to begin “post-outfitting” taxi testing later this week.

Qantas have confirmed they will take delivery of MSN063 in late November.

Once in airline service, she will carry registration VH-OQK and bear the name John/Reginald Duigen.

Image Copyright to Spotter-XFW

A380 Production Update: August 2011 (#10)

Oliver Gigacz — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:18:12 +0000

Today, Qantas announced it was deferring six of its ten remaining A380 orders, until 2018-2021.

The frames that will be affected are numbers fifteen through twenty, which will now be delivered at the end of the decade.

To date, Qantas has had ten A380s delivered, with four more expected within the next sixteen months. These four frames are currently in production, and have the following status…

Qantas #11 – MSN063: Currently in Hamburg, being outfitted. Delivery scheduled for Q4 2011.
Qantas #12 – MSN074: Currently in Hamburg, being outfitted. Delivery scheduled for Q4 2011.
Qantas #13 – MSN091: Expected to enter the assembly line later this year. Delivery scheduled for Q3 2012.
Qantas #14 – MSN102: Expected to enter the assembly line later this year. Delivery scheduled for Q3 2012.

Image Copyright to Oliver Gigacz

A380 Production Update: April 2011 (#1)

Oliver Gigacz — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:14:52 +0000

Yesterday, Qantas’s eleventh A380 (MSN063) performed her first flight.

After spending a few hours testing over Toulouse, she flew onto Hamburg.

Delivery to the airline is scheduled for Q3 2011.

Image Copyright to Linie 9

A380 Production Update: February 2011 (#13)

Oliver Gigacz — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:31:01 +0000

Earlier this week, Qantas’s eleventh A380 (MSN063) was rolled out of final assembly.

MSN063 took twenty three week to complete assembly, which is slightly longer than we originally expected. Qantas’s twelfth A380 (MSN074) is scheduled to roll out next week.

Image Copyright to David Barrie

A380 Production Update: February 2011 (#7)

Oliver Gigacz — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:41:17 +0000

In our previous post, we mentioned that Emirates sixteenth A380 (MSN077) has been spotted on the flightline, complete but without engines.

We can now confirm that MSN077 actually does have her engines installed, and was rolled out of Final Assembly on the 11th February.

This means MSN077 completed assembly in just thirteen weeks, which beats the previous record by almost a month.

This also means MSN077 has overtaken MSN063, MSN074 (Qantas #11 and #12) and MSN076 (Singapore Airlines #15). All three of these frames have Rolls Royce engines. We have it under good authority that after the QF32 incident last November, Airbus delayed production of all Rolls Royce frames for a couple of weeks. This would answer why we are seeing both MSN068 and MSN077 (Both Engine Alliance Engine Frames) a lot earlier than we orignally expected.

Image Copyright to Laurent ERRERA

A380 Production Update: February 2011 (#6)

Oliver Gigacz — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:53:19 +0000

Emirates sixteenth A380 (MSN077) has been spotted on the flightline, looking very similar to Singapore Airlines fifteenth A380 (MSN076). Completed, but without engines and avionics.

MSN077 is behind the Korean Air frame.

As with MSN076, we expect MSN077 to re enter the final assembly line in the coming weeks. We are also expecting Qantas’s eleventh A380 (MSN063) to be fully completed this week, so keep an eye out for her on the flightline.