These photos keep coming to my inbox in the form of a 2MB Powerpoint presentation. I would have uploaded them to Picasa, but I felt the captions are important, so to preserve them I exported it to HTML.
As far as I can determine, the photos are credited to Michael Schlicting of United Ground Handling Services. Although he didn't share them with me personally, I am glad he shared them with others in our industry. Thanks, Michael!
Found this video of a beautiful night landing of the A380 at Washington Dulles International earlier this week.
YouTube suggested this video as related to the ones we have been uploading. I have to say that the graphics are quite amazing, very realistic indeed!
Director of Customer Relations and Marketing Marcus Casey provided us with this clip of the A380 safety video, captured during its demo flight over Manhattan on March 21.
Wednesday was a much longer day than Monday. I was invited to an interior tour at Hangar 19 at 13:00 and nearly got lost on the way. Inside the hangar, a loungy tent with sofas, refreshments, and a coat check provided a comfortable spot to mingle among media and Airbus/Lufthansa execs. Many of my colleagues provided support at the affair, checking people in and giving out tour boarding passes.
Tours groups were about seven people in size, and Airbus VP Communications Clay McConnell escorted each group to the aircraft outside. Along the way he gave an informative chat, which included already known facts like the craft's height, wingspan, and engine thrust. However, he also pointed out that the plane is number 007 and that the tailsign ends in "JB" for James Bond. Additionally it can travel at 85% of the speed of sound - very impressive given its rave reviews for operating quietly, inside and out.
Clay explained that this aircraft is designed to test cabin systems, which means that its appointments were not standardized throughout; rather many different cabin options were on display. For instance, in some sections the seating configuration was 3-4-3 like the 747, and in others it was 2-4-2 like the A340. Different sections of the Economy Class cabin boasted varying color schemes and upholstery, and overhead bin sizes varied as well. The Business Class section was on the upper deck, while Lufthansa has already discussed configuring the upper deck for First Class instead.
I enjoyed Clay's introduction so much that after the interior tour, I asked him if he would mind if I recorded it for the blog. He graciously agreed (thanks, Clay :) I will update this post on Monday with the video.
Update: here is the intro video, as promised.
This video clip distills the contents of the two-hour documentary I mentioned earlier into a seven-minute assembly.
Dozens of Lufthansa employees donned A380/Lufthansa polo shirts to identify ourselves to the press, Airbus crew, and several large groups of passengers who arrived on the A380's first visit to the US under flight number LH8940 this afternoon. We met these privileged people just outside customs in Terminal One, guiding them to their respective destinations: upstairs to the lounge for the press conference (media and Lufthansa crew of 35), to the charter bus headed straight for the hangar (Airbus crew), to the charter buses headed for the hotels (passengers).
Several reporters were present already, waiting to interview the passengers who experienced the luxury of the A380; by all accounts it is a comfortable cabin, roomy but not huge, which is so quiet you don't even feel like you are airborne. The Lufthansa crew members that I spoke with, including the purser, felt honored to be part of this moment in aviation history.
After almost a year of negative publicity around the Airbus A380 program, I have the impression that this route proving program boosts the project again at least as regards Lufthansa employees ;). More than 13,000 participated in an internal sweepstakes for free tickets on one of the test flights. So I guess the flights are beyond all the tests a PR campaign particularly here in the USA.
Airbus even launched a new microsite to inform the public about the route proving program. Let's see whether it will really feature comments of passengers.. as announced in the 'share'-section.
