That's a pretty poor approximation, and I think the result discounts the meaning of the original point. The A380 is a lot more like 3 boxes (based on A380-800:

That's a pretty poor approximation, and I think the result discounts the meaning of the original point. The A380 is a lot more like 3 boxes (based on A380-800: http://www.airbus.com/fileadmin/media_gallery/files/tech_data/AC/Airbus-AC-A380-Jan16.pdf http://www.airbus.com/fileadmin/media_gallery/files/tech_dat...): 1) A fueselage box with a cross section of 2067 ft^2 2) A wing box of ~1200 ft^2 (a very broad approximation because of engines, the actual wing box - the part of the plane where the wings meet the fueselage - and the curve of the wings), 3) A tail box with a cross section of 144 ft^2 So a total cross section of ~3411 ft^3 * 827 fps = ~3 million ft^3 Point being, the plane isn't moving 11 million cubic feet just to move forward, it pushes on a little more than a quarter of that directly. These wake effects happen because it's disrupting so much air outside of the zone it actually travels in, mostly below and behind it.