More News on A380 Weights

Like an overflowing tub in your upstairs neighbor's bathroom, a few details of what the production A380 may look like are starting to seep out from da Festung.

There was a much ballyhooed media joyride in Toulouse not too long ago and some interesting details have emerged, mostly from Flight International.

Flight International tells us that the joyride aircraft (MSN007) had 215 people on board which included 170 press people. It took off at a gross weight of 361 tonnes (808,640 pounds) which included 48 tonnes (107,520 pounds) of fuel. It is also said that the aircraft has 519 seats-although BBC reporter Tom Symonds who was on the flight, says there are 443 seats and The Nation says there are 507 and TOW was 364 tonnes (815,360 pounds), but nevermind. We'll go with Flight International's numbers and seat count.

MSN007 is one of two aircraft configured with a passenger interior, and it was used for the emergency evacuation test last year.

Let's do the math.

808,640 GW
- 107,520 fuel
- 43,000 bodies
- 10,000 incidentals (meals, lav service)
________
648,120 Basic Operating Weight, this flight.

As this is a passenger demonstrator aircraft, it is unlikely that there is a lot of extra instrumentation on board. Likewise, we don't know whether it has been ballasted for some reason.

Even so, the BOW figure thus derived is food for serious thought and it is 40,000 pounds more than the Airbus BOW that has been circulating this last year or so.

Stay tuned