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Cockpit

Environment A380-800 

Unique benefits

The 21st century flagship A380 leverages Airbus’ 30-plus years of expertise in aircraft design, sharing a large degree of commonality in systems, flight deck, procedures, and maintainability with the fly-by-wire A320 and A330/A340 Families today, and the A350XWB tomorrow.

Benefits of this unique approach include unmatched flexibility, highly efficient operations and reduced costs.  Pilots do not need extensive amounts of training to transfer from one aircraft type to another, increasing their productivity and reduced training costs that come with the Airbus fly-by-wire families’ Cross Crew Qualification and Mixed Fleet Flying concepts.

A new-generation flight deck

A380 cockpit
A380 cockpit

While benefitting from Airbus’ industry-leading cockpit design, the A380’s flight deck has further evolved to incorporate the latest advances in technology for displays, flight management systems and navigation.

The A380 cockpit’s main instrument panel has eight identical large interactive displays, with cursor control provided through a track-ball. These displays provide a much larger screen area with clearer presentations, augmented by a HUD (head-up display) that increases pilot situational awareness – particularly during the approach and landing phases.

Cabin commonality

Airbus commonality extends from the flight deck into the passenger cabin as well, with a maximum use of similar systems, control panels and procedures within the various aircraft families.  As a result, cabin personnel also benefit from the familiarity aspects on various Airbus types, while aircraft maintenance is facilitated by the high inter-changeability of systems and parts.

Spotlight on...

...sidestick control: The A380 may be the largest airliner ever built, but a pilot who has flown an aircraft of the A320 or A330/A340 Families will feel at home in the cockpit. The sidestick control, for example, introduced with full fly-by-wire by Airbus with the A320, is the same distance from the throttle as on other Airbus passenger aircraft.

...braking: The Brake-to-Vacate system, designed by a multinational Airbus team, will help ease airport congestion and reduce the amount of time an aircraft remains on the runway. Enabling pilots to select a runway exit while the aircraft is making its landing approach, Brake-to-Vacate uses the auto-flight, flight controls, and auto-brake systems to regulate deceleration after touchdown. This allows the aircraft to reach a specified exit at the correct speed under optimum conditions. Air France and Lufthansa have selected the Brake-to-Vacate option on the A380. Retrofits with the system will also be available on all other Airbus aircraft Families.

Environment A380 Family A380-800 

Event

Orders & deliveries

A380 January 2013
Total orders 262
Total deliveries 97
In operation 97
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Did you know?

Did you know?
  • The A380 is 15 tonnes lighter than it would be if made entirely of metal.    
  • The 4400m2 surface of the A380 is covered in three layers of paint weighing around 500kg.
  • During take-off the A380 wing will flex upwards by over 4m.

  • The air in the A380 cabin is changed every 3 minutes and the temperature can be selected between 18 and 30 degrees.

  • In the first 3 years of service, around 15 million passengers have flown the A380.

  • An A380 takes off or lands every 10 minutes.