A380 Media & Guest Flight Wednesday

[Nonstop2AUH]

I realized that as far as I can tell, other than some excellent photos in the spotting thread, nobody here is really talking about the A380 demo flight that took place Wednesday morning.

Apparently, someone on A.net was invited and will be making a trip report, but does anyone know things like where it was routed, was it visible from the city, who was onboard etc??? I guess everyone is tired of the A380 from Monday but in some respects this is the most interesting aspect of its visit to NYC because it was the only opportunity for locally invited guests to actually fly on it.

PS I saw somewhere that the actual ship that visited JFK, MSN 7, will be going to Etihad (not necessarily in its current configuration) as part of a deal they made to get A380s before their neighbors at Emirates. Can anyone confirm this?

[LGA777]

Interesting article here !

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/ ... bus22.html


LGA777

[Speedbird1]

We went to Terminal One to watch the demo flight on Wednesday. We couldn't view the departure as it must have been from 4L. She made a fly-over Rwy 13R at exactly 11:10, using the Canarsie Approach. I think she arrived on 4R around 11:21. We saw her taxy back to her hangar. She did not park by terminal One. The fly-by was spectacular. Neither the flight's call sign nor route are shown on Passur. I am curious about the route she flew. Similarly, a Concorde also flew over NYC back in the early 80's.

[Matt Molnar]

Good read. It looks like the Chicago (home of Boeing headquarters) and Seattle (home of Boeing manufacturing) newspapers had the best coverage of this event.

Also see: Super-jumbo gets thumbs up. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall was on board and declared that it's quieter than the 747s and 737s that annoy Queens residents. (Chicago Tribune)

PopularMechanics.com should have a report and video from on board at some point today.

[mikephotos]

We went to Terminal One to watch the demo flight on Wednesday. We couldn't view the departure as it must have been from 4L. She made a fly-over Rwy 13R at exactly 11:10, using the Canarsie Approach. I think she arrived on 4R around 11:21. We saw her taxy back to her hangar. She did not park by terminal One. The fly-by was spectacular. Neither the flight's call sign nor route are shown on Passur. I am curious about the route she flew. Similarly, a Concorde also flew over NYC back in the early 80's.

Just to confirm: Yes, it departed 4L and yes, it returned on 4R. The fly-by 13R was a huge disappointmet, it was more like a [very high] missed approach :(

Mike

[Matt Molnar]

Video: A380 Test Drive. Great interior shots of the plane which gives you an idea how huge it is, view out the window on takeoff, interview with the chief test flight engineer, interview with the FO. (Popular Mechanics)

[Tom_Turner]

Just to confirm: Yes, it departed 4L and yes, it returned on 4R. The fly-by 13R was a huge disappointmet, it was more like a [very high] missed approach :(
Mike

Sounds similar to what the MATS Connie did on its last visit to JFK (no more in the future, since the aircraft is now static display only). YEs, it does sound disappointing.

Too bad really, a couple of years before that the MATS connie nearly did a touch and go on both 13L and 13R with spectacular turns.


TT

[Nonstop2AUH]

Interesting stuff, Seattle PI and the Chicago paper provided much better coverage than anything I've seen locally, including the fact that some local politicos were on the guest list.

Also found it interesting that some airline industry "friends of Airbus" made the list, but apparently nobody that would upstage Lufthansa's promotional effort in as much as they probably paid a large part of the tab for this, if not the whole tab. In other words, Airbus customers that don't compete with Lufty like the heads of Spirit and Indigo were invited, but I guess no one from a major transatlantic carrier or another A380 customer like Emirates. Putting together the invite list so as not to offend some political or industry bigwig by leaving them out while not offending Lufthansa by inviting a competitor must have been a considered process...

I guess it's safe to say nobody from here got invited, but unless he's blowing smoke, I'll be interested to read the trip report from the A.netter who says he was...

[Matt Molnar]

Yeah, sad that none of the local papers did anything. I was expecting at least the Times and WSJ to cover it. Odd reading about the Queens Borough President in a Chicago paper.

While the FRA-JFK flight was operated by LH, the media flight was operated by Airbus, which is why it wasn't on any of the trackers. I get the impression that the event was geared more toward Airbus selling the plane to the public and air carriers than LH trying to sell their new A380 service. After all, LH won't actually receive their first whalejet for quite awhile yet. Furthering that point, from the articles I've read, Airbus' head of sales John Leahy was on board, along with the CEO of Indigo Airlines of India, the president of Spirit Airlines, and someone from Air Canada.

The last sentence from the Seattle PI article was interesting too: Leahy is having dinner with UA chairman Glenn Tilton tonight.

[AA 777]

, from the articles I've read, Airbus' head of sales John Leahy was on board, along with the CEO of Indigo Airlines of India, the president of Spirit Airlines, and someone from Air Canada.

I think its safe to say the only reason that the president of Spirit was onboard was because they are a good Airbus customer....dont think we will be seeing spirit airlines flying A380's anytime soon or anyone for that matter :twisted: :lol:

[Speedbird1]

According to the JFK diagram, only Rwy 4R/22L is 200' wide; necessary for the A380 yet she departed 31L for ORD and she departed 4L for her Media Flight, so what's up? Evidently, she can arrive and depart from any JFK runway. Have the other runways been reinforced and widened without this being indicated on the JFK diagrams?

[Matt Molnar]

There was no baggage or cargo on board and little fuel for those flights, so she probably under the maximum weight for those runways.

[Winglets747]

According to the JFK diagram, only Rwy 4R/22L is 200' wide; necessary for the A380 yet she departed 31L for ORD and she departed 4L for her Media Flight, so what's up? Evidently, she can arrive and depart from any JFK runway. Have the other runways been reinforced and widened without this being indicated on the JFK diagrams?

60m (approx 200 feet) is recommended for the A380 but 45m (approx 150 feet) is an (interim) minimum requirement.