ALTITUDE TESTS: Airbus Superjumbo A380 lands in Ethiopia

10/17/2006
The Ethiopian capital's Bole airport is situated at 7,500 feet, from which the A380 is to undertake tests to validate its Engine Alliance GP7200 engines performance from high altitude airports.
The Airbus superjumbo, the A380, landed on Monday (October 16) in Ethiopia at Africa's highest airport ahead of altitude tests. The huge airliner landed at Addis Ababa after a six and a half hour flight from Toulouse.
The crew were met by senior officials of Ethiopian Airlines -- one of Africa's oldest and most successful airlines -- whose aircraft are from Airbus rival Boeing. The Airbus flight crew were handed flowers as they left the aircraft and one of the test pilots explained why they had chosen Addis Ababa.
"We have to do what we call high altitude testing of our engines, which are new engines to the A380, and this is now several times we are coming to Addis to do those exercises because first of all, the welcome is so nice and secondly the altitude exactly the one we are looking for, we have the temperatures we are looking for and last but not least which is most important to us we get the proper support from you people over here," said Captain Etienne Tarnowski.
The Ethiopian capital's Bole airport is situated at 7,500 feet, from which the A380 is to undertake tests to validate its Engine Alliance GP7200 engines performance from high altitude airports.
Hot weather tests in Arab Emirates
At the end of the week the A380 is expected to fly on to Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates for hot weather tests. However, two-year delays to the A380 superjumbo and a profit shortfall of 4.8 billion euros have pushed Airbus towards a restructuring expected to threaten thousands of European jobs.
French and German leaders last week called for the burden of the "Power8" restructuring plan to be shared equally, amid an outcry in Germany over unconfirmed suggestions that jobs could be transferred from Hamburg to Airbus headquarters in Toulouse.
The industry has so far not provided figures on the overall financial impact of the A380 delays, although analysts say the cashflow and working capital requirements of those involved in making primary structural components are most under pressure.
40 superjumbo deliveries
Airbus is not expected to reach the milestone of 40 superjumbo deliveries until early 2010 under its latest forecasts, two years later than originally scheduled. The construction of the world's largest commercial airliner brought together major European powers. In addition to the prime contractors in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain, components for the A380 airframe are also manufactured by industrial partners in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. The final assembly of the A380 is based in Toulouse, France, with interior fitment carried out in Hamburg, Germany.
Airbus first began studies on a very large 500 seat airliner in the early 1990s. The European manufacturer saw developing a competitor and successor to the Boeing 747 as a strategic play to end Boeing's dominance of the very large airliner market and round out Airbus' product line-up.
On January 18, 2005, the first Airbus A380 was officially revealed in a lavish ceremony, attended by 5000 invited guests including the French, German, British and Spanish president and prime ministers, representing the countries that invested heavily in the 10-year, 10 billion Euro (13 billion U.S. dollar) aircraft programme, and the CEOs of the 14 A380 customers, who had placed firm orders for 149 aircraft by then.
Source: www.eitb24.com