What’s that up in the sky?! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No…it’s Superman! Oh, wait. It is a plane. But it's a sort of super plane, if that helps. It’s the new Airbus A380, and it’s the biggest passenger plane in history.

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	The A380 is a full 148 tons larger than the 747-400ER and can seat more than 400 extra passengers on average.

Designed to seat up to 853 passengers and with a whopping maximum take-off weight of more than 561 metric tons, the A380 is a full 148 tons larger than the 747-400ER and can seat more than 400 extra passengers on average. (Seating configurations can be adjusted such that a given A380 might seat more or less people than another.)

The Superjumbo, as the A380 has been dubbed, completed its first commercial flight only a few weeks ago. Singapore Airlines flight SQ380 made the seven-hour journey from Singapore to Sydney on October 25th, with passengers paying from $560 to $100,380 for the privilege of a seat or suite on the historic flight.

And yes, I did say suite. Singapore Airlines opted for a configuration that includes 12 luxury suites in addition to the somewhat less luxurious business and economy classes. Each suite boasts sliding doors for privacy, a leather upholstered seat, a flat screen TV, and a bed that folds into the wall, among other amenities. Two suites can even be combined to allow for a double bed. Sounds pretty swank, eh? But don't just take my word for it. This article from ForbesTraveler.com includes an eye-opening slideshow of the fancy digs.

Of course, it takes a lot of work to design and build such a behemoth. Airbus first considered making the A380 as far back as the early 1990s. Numerous designs were proposed before the current double-decker format was settled upon. Actual manufacturing of the first plane components was not begun until early 2002. Thereafter, countless tests, including fatigue tests, flight tests, and electrical tests, had to be conducted to make sure that the plane was fit to fly. As it happened, the first deliveries were delayed by nearly two years, a setback that Airbus attributed largely to the complexity of the approximately 330 miles of wiring required for each plane.

Finally, however, on October 15th, the first aircraft was delivered to Singapore Airlines, and the rest, as they say, is aviation history.

Well, history and future. In spite of the production problems, a full 165 planes had already been ordered by October 31st, and Airbus expects to sell more than 800 by 2025. Consequently, bird watchers, travelers, and aviation enthusiasts can expect to see a lot more of the A380 in the years to come.

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