TLDR: building airliners is an iterative learning-process like writing software. Best to avoid v1.0 > I was hoping for some interesting manufacturing quirks o

TLDR: building airliners is an iterative learning-process like writing software. Best to avoid v1.0 > I was hoping for some interesting manufacturing quirks or something The first five A380s that SIA received on lease from Doric, of which this is one, are very early production airframes[0] and are noticable heavier and less efficient than the later 14. SIA have talked about this on several occasions, it's no different to Boeing's 'terrible teens' 787s that are less desirable than later production examples and which will probably suffer the same fate. They also have five more A380s on order, so if they drop the lease on the other four oldest airframes then their A380 fleet will remain static. But that's not as exciting a headline. [0] construction numbers 003, 005, 006, 008 and 010. Their most recent in service is 092, for contrast, and 243, 247, 251, 253 and 255 are on the production schedule for them.