Word: airings
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...watch, the takeoff roll for Air France Flight 380 lasted 35 seconds. "39 seconds," corrected Laurent Bonnard, a French historian, as we chatted in a lounge area later. Either way, all the planiacs on board Air France's inaugural A380 Airbus flight from New York City to Paris agreed the takeoff was a thing of beauty. Imagine an apartment building with wings that steps into the sky with the quiet grace of a ballet dancer. The lack of engine noise - it's 50% quieter than a 747-400 on takeoff - was downright eerie. The A380...
...A380 is the largest airliner to ever part with the pavement: it can hold as many as 800 passengers in full sardine-can configuration, although Air France has mercifully limited the crowd to 535 in first, business and coach classes. In preparation for its entry into service in 2007, airports widened runways and hardened taxiways. Its catering trucks rise two stories off the ground to reach the galleys...
...Air France is trying to bring back the party to the skies. There are six bars on the plane, which encourages passengers to mingle (in their own class, of course). In the front of the upper deck, in the business section, there's even an art gallery of sorts: flat-screen TVs displaying digital previews of the New York and Paris cultural scenes, a somewhat lavish use of space...
...A380s standard coach seat is as good as it's going to get in the claustrophobic calamity that is air travel. The chair is 19-in. (48 cm) wide, affording about 5% more room than on other jets on this route. There's a 8.4 in. (21 cm) video screen with about 3,000 hours of programming, (about as long an overnight flight can feel). Alex Hervet, an A380 design engineer, explained to me that he repositioned the hinge point on the chair back an inch higher so that your knees won't get squeezed when the guy in front...
...Like all new jetliners, the A380 was controversial in conception, delayed in construction and years late on arrival. But none could have predicted that the A380 would fly into the most turbulent economy in the history of aviation. Air France ordered a dozen of the $300 million aircraft in 2000, when the economic forecast called for steady growth. By the time Air France took delivery nine years later, the industry was on its knees and the big-spending investment bankers whose business- and first-class tickets make up the bulk of airline profits had largely evaporated...