« Airbus A-380 photos at Airliners.net »

Looks like, at long last, &laquo the official rollout of the Airbus A-380 », the world’’s largest commercial aircraft, is finally at hand:

‘Airbus, which has delivered more airplanes than Boeing for the second year in a row, is about to unveil another No. 1: the world’’s largest passenger jet. The A380, a four-aisle, four-engine, double-decker “superjumbo,” will roll onto the tarmac Tuesday at Airbus headquarters in southern France, in a lavish ceremony attended by EU leaders and thousands of guests. Sales have beat expectations so far, and most of the technical problems that have dogged the program have been resolved, at a price. But the real sighs of relief won’‘t be heard in Toulouse until later — sometime before March 31, Airbus says — when the A380 hauls its 280-metric ton (308-ton) frame aloft. That’’s when the plane’’s engineers will begin to find out whether their gargantuan offspring lives up to the performance promises, as the first test-flight data streams in.’

— AP

If it all goes as scheduled and without a hitch, it will be an incredibly impressive technical achievement and will add punctuation to Boeing’’s sad state of affairs.

« Very first pics of the first A380 are up at Airliners.net ».

That is one big-ass airplane. Awesome!