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Airbus tried to get the FAA to relax the requirement that every possible seat offered for sale be able to leave in 90 seconds - ie, just 600 instead of the full

Airbus tried to get the FAA to relax the requirement that every possible seat offered for sale be able to leave in 90 seconds - ie, just 600 instead of the fully rated 800. Then they asked to relax it to 120 seconds. Finally, they told the FAA that their models should be sufficient. The FAA (and eventually the European equivalent agencies) said no to these asks and made them do the full test with 800 people leaving the plane in 90 seconds. They did so in ~85 seconds, IIRC. Their last concern is that far more people get injured in tests than in reality, which was a fair point - but there were questions about the particular configuration that Airbus proposed. Also, Airbus never sold the A380 to any major US carrier, and no carrier was ever able to fill that many seats on the A380 sustainably. So maybe Airbus was right, but for the same reasons that eventually doomed the project.

kqr2 3y ago
873 people in 78 seconds. It took them 4 years to prepare for the test though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_8hbsWKoOU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_8hbsWKoOU
sofixa 3y ago
> and no carrier was ever able to fill that many seats on the A380 sustainably Emirates would disagree. As per their CEO, and just one of those pairings, they have 6 daily flights London-Dubai, all full.
- InTheArena 3y ago
  Emirates is the carrier for the A380 with the bulk of the orders going there. They also have begged for more seats given that the 380 was prebuilt for a stretch. But even emirates has never been close to the full seat count on a baseline A380, and no other airline has found the A380 profitable to the point to consider significant follow on orders. The USA accounted for half of the world wide lift when the A380 program was going and none of the major carriers picked it up.there was little demand for a new build freighter build, so that program did and the 787 Balkanized the pacific the same way as the 757 and 767 fragmented Atlantic traffic which meant even the Japanese carriers didn’t really bite on the A380. At the end of the day the A380 was airbus trying to out-America (bigger, faster) Boeing, while Boeing stole Airbus’s big twin strategy with the 777.
  - sofixa 3y ago
    > But even emirates has never been close to the full seat count on a baseline A380 What do you mean? Emirates' CEO has said they fill it up quite often (it being an A380 in between 2 and 4 classes depending on the route). > new build freighter build The A380F was never viable because the floor in the middle is structural, so the volume is quite limited.

kqr2 3y ago

873 people in 78 seconds. It took them 4 years to prepare for the test though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_8hbsWKoOU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_8hbsWKoOU

sofixa 3y ago

> and no carrier was ever able to fill that many seats on the A380 sustainably Emirates would disagree. As per their CEO, and just one of those pairings, they have 6 daily flights London-Dubai, all full.

InTheArena 3y ago
Emirates is the carrier for the A380 with the bulk of the orders going there. They also have begged for more seats given that the 380 was prebuilt for a stretch. But even emirates has never been close to the full seat count on a baseline A380, and no other airline has found the A380 profitable to the point to consider significant follow on orders. The USA accounted for half of the world wide lift when the A380 program was going and none of the major carriers picked it up.there was little demand for a new build freighter build, so that program did and the 787 Balkanized the pacific the same way as the 757 and 767 fragmented Atlantic traffic which meant even the Japanese carriers didn’t really bite on the A380. At the end of the day the A380 was airbus trying to out-America (bigger, faster) Boeing, while Boeing stole Airbus’s big twin strategy with the 777.
- sofixa 3y ago
  > But even emirates has never been close to the full seat count on a baseline A380 What do you mean? Emirates' CEO has said they fill it up quite often (it being an A380 in between 2 and 4 classes depending on the route). > new build freighter build The A380F was never viable because the floor in the middle is structural, so the volume is quite limited.