Airliners.net: A380 schematics and profile

Well, I was going to bore you with some statistics about wingspan, fuel efficiency, and passenger capacity, but airliners.net has already beautifully written a profile of the craft complete with seat map and cockpit photos.

Fraport: visitor's terrace open for A380 viewing

The big bird can of course be seen in Frankfurt this weekend before its arrival to the US, and again near the end of the month. According to this Fraport press release, the visitor's terrace in Terminal 2 will be temporarily reopened for viewing the A380.

What we’ll miss out

Those people like me, a bloody intern at Lufthansa’s NYC office, that will not have the opportunity to join the lucky crowd flying on Monday from Frankfurt, Germany to JFK should have a look at the following video to get an impression of what we’ll miss out. Although, the cabin design and seats of the MSN007 the A380 aircraft used for the Lufthansa Route Proving Program are actually from Airbus, 23 cabin crew members of Lufthansa will provide full on-board service to mostly Airbus and Lufthansa employees in addition to some press people and guests that are among the 500 passengers. The video is from September’s first passenger flight (Early Long Flights).

Can't hardly wait

The A380 makes its American debut next week with arrivals on both coasts. At New York's JFK International Airport, Lufthansa will host the Eastern appearance of what some aviation enthusiasts refer to as "Airboss" - an apt name for the single largest passenger aircraft ever built.

There is significant interest in the craft's arrival, both inside and outside the aviation industry. Repeated mentions and threads on travel blogs and forums, as well as an influx of customer inquiries and internal discussions, have proven that. Everyone isn't invited to the events at JFK next week, but nearly everyone wishes they were. Fortunately, some of us are, and we want to share the whole thing here, with everyone who can't be there for whatever reason.

Then who am I?

My name is Michelle, and I do work for Lufthansa. I started in reservations ten years ago, moving later to technical support, and finally wound up under Marketing in Customer Relations. (Some of you may remember me from rec.travel.air.) While I'm not an aircraft buff, there is little that renders me quite as speechless as the sight of an aircraft at cruising altitude, and I am certain that the sight of the A380 will steal my breath altogether.

I managed to convince some of my colleagues to join me in relating the A380 debut experience through this blog. We invite your comments and open discussion (friendly and respectfully of course) and look forward to sharing our fascination with you!