Superjumbo A380 Arrived in South Africa for Last Test Flight

By Eddyson Lugangwa Posted 27 November 2006 @ 02:30 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

Nairobi (IBTimes.com) - The world's largest commercial aircraft, the Airbus A380, arrived in the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Sunday morning for its last global tour to test its airworthiness.

The 555-seat, double-dech test aircraft, which cost around 230 million U.S. dollars, landed at the OR Tambo International Airport, Africa's busiest airport, shortly after 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Sunday from Toulouse in France.

The superjumbo has successfully conducted several autolanding trials, and is expected to undertake a series of refueling, docking and other exercises during the day, before departing for Sydney, Australia, on Monday morning.

The journey to Johannesburg "marked the beginning of the fourth and last part of A380's technical route proving exercise,"European aircraft manufacturer Airbus said in a press release.

It will fly over the South Pole en-route to Sydney where it will arrive on Tuesday. From Sydney, it will fly across the Pacific to Vancouver, Canada, prior to returning to Toulouse via the North Pole.

Runways and taxiways at the OR Tambo International Airport havebeen widened, and new contact aircraft stands are constructed to accommodate the A380.

South Africa is the only African stop for the much-expected test flight of the A380, which is 73 m long and has a wingspan of 79.8 m. Its height is 24.1 m and its fuselage is 7.14 m in diameter.

The A380 has visited Singapore, Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai in the previous test flights.