| The World's Largest Commercial Plane Makes First Passenger Flight |
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A commercial A380 flight will take off from Singapore for Sydney The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, has taken off on its first commercial flight - from Singapore to Sydney, Australia. Singapore Airlines took delivery of the huge plane dubbed the Superjumbo just over a week ago and passengers bought seats in a charity online auction.
It can carry some 850 passengers but is carrying about 450 to Sydney.
The Superjumbo's advent ends a reign of nearly four decades by the Boeing 747 as the world's biggest airliner.
The new aircraft suffered almost two years of delays because of a number of construction problems but took off on time on Wednesday.
The BBC's Rajan Datar reports from aboard the plane that the journey is going smoothly.
Part of history:
Hundreds of staff and passengers at Singapore's Changi Airport watched it lift into the sky, snapping the moment with pocket cameras and camera phones.
"I'm a big airplane freak and I love everything about planes," passenger Ernest Graaff told Reuters news agency before he boarded the liner. He had paid $40,000 for two business-class tickets on the jet.
"I'm excited about being a part of history," he added before the seven-hour flight.
Passengers paid between $560 and $100,380 to be on the inaugural flight.
Lern more about Airbus: www.airbus.com |
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