OSHKOSH, Wisc – Of all the planes to touch down in Oshkosh this week, one towers above all others -- the Airbus A380.
We’ve written about the A380 before, and it’s tough to call a plane that’s already in service at three different airlines experimental, but today Airbus gave us – and the rest of the crowd here – something much cooler than your typical commercial jet landing. Flying in from Toulouse (via Milwaukee) under the command of test pilot Terry Lutz, the 380 did multiple flybys over the airfield, showing off for the thousands of assembled plane watchers before touching down at 3:15 local time.
As the plane rolled to a stop, its four engines roaring, we couldn't help but be awed all over again by its sheer size. It is 239 feet long and 79 feet high. Its wingspan is almost 80 269 feet. It weighs in at 610,000 pounds. Huge doesn't begin to describe this beauty. When we saw one land in San Francisco, it made the Boeing 747s on the tarmac look dinky. Seriously.
Seeing the plane in the company of so many other things with wings (some of them not so small themselves) puts those numbers in perspective. And while it might seem silly to call an aircraft the size of the A380 graceful, there’s no other way to describe the way it gently turned and banked as it circled the airfield before making its final approach. We’ve made it clear from the start that we love this plane, and today in Oshkosh we found a reason to love it a little bit more.
We figured that Virgin Galactic’s Eve* *would be the star of AirVenture this year, and it is. But for a few minutes at least, the crowd here could see nothing but the A380.
More pics after the jump.
Photos: Jason Paur/Wired.com
To get a sense of just how big the A380 is, here's a pic Wired.com's Emily Lang shot when Emirates brought its super-luxe A380 (beds, showers, a bar with a waterfall... it's insane) to San Francisco for a publicity dog-and-pony show.
