Tour Of The Airbus A-380

The A-380

The largest and the smallest. This little plane was brought to Oshkosh inside the belly of the A-380
In the upper deck
Thursday July 30

The big deal today was my chance to board the largest airliner in the world, the Airbus A-380. Boarding started at 10:00am this morning and as hundreds of other people, I took my place in line in the rain. After an hour and fifteen minutes, I stepped inside the cabin. The plane that is here at AirVenture is the second one ever built, and as such is a test bed for the Airbus company. What I mean by that is that this plane is not full of seats, but mostly test equipment. This plane is used to test various layouts that a customer may require. The large gray barrels you see in the pictures are used to add weight to the plane to simulate the weight of passengers or other things. Never the less, this is a huge plane. We boarded near the rear of the plane and proceeded to go to the second level via the rear spiral staircase. As we made our way to the front of the plane we returned to the main level by a large much wider staircase that brought you to just behind the flight deck. Off limits, of course. As a mater of fact, you weren't even allowed to bring a back pack on board.