News
October 25, 2007
Airbus A380
I am surprisingly wide awake, after flying 22 hours the day before
to get here from Miami. I always liked Singapore. As a former Boeing
747-400 and 777-200/300 pilot for another Asian carrier, I had spent
many layovers days and nights here and attended the superb bi-annual
(an also very hot and humid) Airshow. However, what is keeping me
up today, really, is the excitement and anticipation of being part
of aviation history as one of the passengers of SQ380, the world’s
first A380 commercial scheduled flight! My friend Chris, owner of a top TV production company (www.2cmedia.com
) with ample experience in aviation programs is also the owner of
Airchive, one of the world’s largest airline memorabilia collections,
which he curates online at www.airchive.com . Chris and I met in
the cockpit of a 747-400 on a flight from LA to Hong Kong, well
before September 11th , when passengers were allowed to visit the
cockpit on very long haul flights. Chris passion for and knowledge
of commercial aviation are impressive. I will be thankful to him
forever as he initiated the adventure and “surgically” bid on EBay’s
most complex charity auction ever and a few thousand dollars later,
we were set to be part of aviation history…I also knew that someone
paid over $100,000 for a first class “suite” on this flight. The
trip ahead would surely be an unforgettable one. Singapore Airline’s
Ramona Donan for the LAX office was instrumental in setting up our
itineraries and discounted fares to and from Miami, which was no
easy feat considering I had business commitments on the way to and
from the inaugural flight. The terminal was quiet at 5:00AM, except for an oasis of spotlights
illuminating giant A380 banners with photos pf the exterior and
interior, Singapore Airlines Logos, the slogan “First to Fly A30”
and a trademark double row of windows sandwiching the words which
I believe Singapore will use for a long time. As we cross the gate
doors, surprise, cameras, flashes, photographers, people talking
to reporters….the scene reminds me of The Oscar’s (no pun intended)
red carpet night, Chris and I suddenly were caught in the middle
of the hyped up crowd and before we knew it we were taken to a Stage
like back drop where a photographer flashed our photos as press
agent took our names and addresses to ensure we receive our shots
formatted as minted as limited series of “SQ A380 Stamps”. For the first time ever, an airline check-in was exciting, friendly
with everyone buzzing with excitement and anticipation. We felt
like true “pioneers jet-setters” and the only other two events that
could compare were Pan Am’s Boeing 747 first commercial service
between JFK and Heathrow on January 22nd, 1970 and January 21st
,1976 Concorde simultaneous first commercial supersonic services.
British Airways from Heathrow to Bahrain and Air France from Paris
to Rio. Historically speaking, it seems like aircraft size yielded
briefly to high speed and now it was now size to make history again!
At 6:00 AM we passed immigration and walked to Gate F31. All of
us gladly went through thorough individual security checks (no,
we did not have to take off our shoes!). Once inside, the scene
reminded me of the boarding gates of Pan American Airways Clippers
in the 1920’s at Dinner Key, in Miami, A full breakfast buffet full
with French and tropical delicacies was laid out with waiters and
waitresses serving champagne and fresh exotic juices. A classical
string quartet played and beautiful Singapore Airlines Flight Attendants,
worldwide renowned in the industry as “Singapore girls” lined the
room and guarded the jetway door under a large SQ A380 banner and
next to a Gala like stage and lectern and “First to Fly A380” backdrop. A local Singaporean TV celebrity served as Master of ceremonies
and gracefully articulated the passengers’ thoughts and feelings.
We all happily cheered, applauded and chatted non stop. At 7:00
AM and as the mighty A380 silhouette started to reveal behind the
glass walls of the boarding lounge, Singapore Airlines Chew Choon
Seng took the stage and thanked all present for gracefully donating
their US$1.3 million dollar ticket bids charity. The proceeds were
to be donated in full and split evenly amongst three charities,
Singapore’s Community Chest, Sydney’s Children Hospitals at Randwick
and Westmead and the Global medical charity Doctors Without Borders.
Charities chairmen spoke to thank everyone on behalf of the less
fortunate. Exxon Mobile Corp CEO for Asia, representing a couple
of dozen of sponsors amongst them Google, gave his speech, more
cheering and applause…….the anticipation was reaching the highest
levels at this time. The room roared and the press went crazy as the flight crew of
four arrived. They received movie star celebrity treatment from
all present. Captain Robert Ting, A380 chief Fleet Captain and a
36 year SQ veteran, previously Airbus A340-500 “Leadership” fleet
chief Captain led the crew. One of the Captains, was wearing a different
uniform, he was Claude Lelaie Airbus Chief Test Pilot and first
to fly the A 380 prototype during the test program. The ribbon cutting ceremony took place at 7:20 and finally unleashed
everyone’s pent up cheers, enthusiasm and anticipation when Mr.
Chew announced that the flight was officially open for boarding.
First onboard was Australian resident Briton Julian Hayward who
truly deserved a guided tour of the empty aircraft, including the
cockpit, by Captain Ting himself. Mr. Hayward was the one who paid
the highest bid of all passengers; US$100,380 for the privilege
of occupying suite A1. Singapore is one of the 20 or so airports worldwide (Miami will
be ready in early 2009) that will service the A 380. There were
three standard sized jet ways plugged to the aircraft two to the
lower deck and one to the upper deck. As Chris and I walked in,
we shook hands with Chairman Chew who wished us a good flight, we
had already received a FedEx letter from him a week prior to the
flight looking forward to meeting and flying with us. I call that
personalized care and attention to detail! For the first time ever,
I climbed “up” a jetway to get to the airplane as our seats 77K-H
were located on the right rear section of the upper deck. Entering the airplane felt like we were boarding a new generation A340 and a “new airplane” smell of leather and fine woods and carpets permeated the air. The front of the cabin hosted a 1-2-1 Business class seats, at 34 inches wide and 55 inches of pitch , the largest in their class and already in service on SQ’s 777-300ER’s due to the A380 delays. The rear economy cabin was configured 2-4-2 and the Weber seats at 19 inches wide and 32 inches of pitch (the seat back reclines and the bottom slides forward) were the largest I have ever seen in economy. Each seat greeted us with a Givenchy blanket and a SQ380 commemorative “Goodie Bag” with a 1:400 limited series A380 model, Cerrutti Pens and other gifts by Montblanc, Travelsentry and Singapore Airlines items, all very classy! To top it off, as the upper cabin fuselage walls slant outwards (the “upper bubble” shape) each seat has a personal stowage space next to it similar to that found on the upper deck of B 747-400’s. I easily stowed all my personal belongings with room to spare. The windows are sized as in other airbus aircraft and have manual shades (as opposed t the new generation B 787 oversized with automatic window tinting ,optional on Airbus’s new A350XWB).
By now it was 7:45 AM and everyone was still up, talking, roaming
the cabins as SQ trademark sarongs clad “girls” politely tried to
have everyone seated for what it seemed an unlikely on time departure.
Somehow their assertive charm prevailed and exactly at 8:00am, SQ380
pushed back to the taxiway and literally seconds later while I was
waiting to hear the engines start, the aircraft started moving.
I supposed we were being towed but we were not. The A380 Rolls Royce
Trent 900 engines would prove to be the surprise of the flight as
they were so quiet we barely heard them at all, including the take
off. The view from the window is always above any other airplane on
the ramp. The massive dihedral wing is designed to carry the stretched
versions of the A380 (900-1000 planned versions) and it does looks
like a mountain of aluminum. It has a 50% wider chord than a 747-400
and at 9,100 sq ft it is 40% more expansive. At each wing tip, the
wing fences are similar to those on older A300/310’s and although
they looked small from my seat, they are close to 7 feet high. I
also noticed a three paneled outboard aileron set (no inboards)
and two double slotted inboard and outboard flaps with immense hinge
fairings or “canoes”. The plane taxied slowly, its four main landing gears, outboards
with four wheels and inboards with six, for a total of 20 wheels
steered by two massive nose tires yielding crisp and vibration less
maneuvering. I felt no braking or acceleration, no wheel scrubbing
and again no sign of engine noise at all! Captain Ting’s skillful
inputs coupled to the wheel cameras and “steer by wire” system worked
flawlessly. The PA announcements and safety briefings were standard, we estimated
7 hours and 6 minutes flight time. We were the first paying passengers
to use the safety cards, listen and watch the A380 specific emergency
videos. Eight doors on the lower deck and six on the upper deck
(the ramps coming down seemed impressively steep!). I knew 873 people
evacuated the aircraft during flight tests within 90 seconds, impressive! Exactly at 8:15 with a derated or “flex” thrust setting of 76%
of Max Take Off and a planned rotation speed of 154 Knots, the plane
slowly rolled down the runway….. no perceptible acceleration and
virtually no engine sound. As a pilot, I expected both. Taking off
on 747-400’s the sensation of speed is deceptively slow, in the
A380 it was even more so. As a pilot, I know Changi’s runways well,
their length and reference points so as we approached the last third
the airplane finally started rotating at a speed that felt too slow
for its size and weight and quickly leapt into the air with an unusually
low deck angle……..thanks to those “oversized” wide chord wings,
the 280,000 pounds of thrust Trent 900’s quads and our approximately
74% of maximum gross take off weight, as this airplane was not carrying
cargo. Everyone started cheering, applauding, screaming, talking, even
singing………..this takeoff will go as the one in history in which
the noise inside the cabin was much higher than the noise footprint
outside of the airplane! I am sure Captain Ting and his crew in
the cockpit heard it loud and clear! The seat belt sign came off and never came on until descent into
Sydney. The pressurization rate seemed slow and I felt a little
bit of ear popping. It did not deter at all any of the 455 passengers
who interpreted the chime as the bell to start the world’s largest
airborne party ever recorded! Fine Charles-Heidsieck champagne, cocktails and fine first class
wines started flowing, cameras filming, air phones dialing and reporters
writing and interviewing. The entertainment system is an eX2 branded
upgrade version of SQ’s award winning Krisworld running on a Panasonic
S3000i platform. It has an almost unlimited selection of more than
100 movies, 180 TV shows, 20 radio channels, over 700 CD’s, language
learning programs, video games, and the list goes on and on…all
displayed on flat LCD screens in all seats sizes ranging from 10.6
inches in economy, 15.4 in business and 23 in the Suites. Even the
economy seats have details such as coat hangers, back rest cup holders,
individual reading lights under the screens, computer power outlets,
airphones, seat to seat intercoms and an interactive command console
that doubles up as a computer key board. There are USB ports for
thumb drives with access to Microsystems StarOffice window applications,
so each seat in the airplane can virtually convert to a workstation.
The Flight tracking system is Google based and it is an impressive
satellite view of the world, aircraft position-speed and it is zoom-able
for more or less detail, another first in the industry. Nevertheless, most of us stood up and spent the flight chatting,
exchanging views, business cards and email addresses and exploring
the aircraft nooks and crannies. As the flight progressed, thousands
of photos and hours of videos were taken, friendships and business
relationships were made. We all had a common aviation bond, one
that we would all share for life. Walking along the cabin I noticed
a pronounced upslope deck angle, equal to that on the much longer
B777-300. All of a sudden, in full uniform Captain Ting walked down the aisle
shaking hands, sharing short talk and signing autographs with the
passengers. At the same time, CEO Chew roamed the lower deck doing
the same and personally thanking and sharing with everyone on board.
The atmosphere was that of a Gala/Party/Awards ceremony. Ting and
Chew would have never predicted the reaction from passengers and
at times they were circled by over 20-30 people. At some point I
could see captain Ting thinking ‘How do I get back to the cockpit
in a hurry if I have to?”. Someone asked him who was flying the
plane and he pulled up his cell phone and holding it with two hands
said in a charming broken English “me flying , which way you want,
right or left?” Flight attendants charms and smiles persuaded us to sit down and
lunch service started. Together with the menu, each one of us was
personally addressed and given an official SQ First A 380 Certificate,
Chew and Ting and delivered framed versions personally to each business
class and suites passengers. The menus on each cabin varied, as you can imagine. I will let
you know that the food in economy was better than in some business
class flights I have taken, the first class was the “usual” caviar,
lobster and some of the best wines ever served in flight before.
The uniqueness of this flights was that all menus were prepared
by two renowned chefs who were onboard an fully dressed up, Mathew
Moran from Australia (Aria restaurant) and Sam Leong from Singapore
(Tun Lok Group).They both supervised the service and gracefully
chatted with passengers to ensure the meals were as extraordinary
as the flight. They said the hardest part was preparing the food
before the flight and then rearranging it and heating it up again
to perfection. Lunch was the only quiet period in this flight, by now, we were
flying over Indonesia, close to the island of Bali. Some slight
clear air turbulence patches gave a hint of movement and I found
the ride smoother than in a A340/300 category aircraft under the
same conditions. The smooth ride was in part due to the massive
size/weight of the airplane, the fly by wire triple panel ailerons
(each piece working individually and sometimes in opposite directions!)
and in part, I believe, due to an extremely long wing and a wide
wing box coupling. After lunch, we all stood up again and went around the cabin once
more, I then went to visit the lower deck and looked for the cabin
crew rest area, which is in the middle and underneath of the lower
deck. A large door leads to a spiraling staircase and into a stand
up area with ample space for 10 double bunk beds and a couple of
double seats, as I was told by a friendly but watchful flight attendant
who saw me fumbling with the door. I walked back through the main deck’s economy section making my
way between groups of people talking and celebrating and noticed
how the fuselage sidewalls and windows are slightly slanted down
as the curvature of the fuselage main “bubble “ arches down to close
its massive circumference. The view form the windows on those sections
is slightly down and directly underneath which is quite unusual
in an airliner. I had only seen that effect on the last 5 or so
windows of the main deck of B 747-400’s. Next on my list was a visit to the Suites, so I walked upstairs
and all the way to the front of business class, an oasis of peace
and quiet compared to economy as the seat partitions are so large
that even when there are two people in each seat (guest chairs for
face to face dining or talking are standard in each seat) you cannot
see heads resulting in a very quiet and orderly environment. But
truth be told, most business class passengers had joined the party
in the economy cabins! The forward stairway is wide and regal, it reminded me of cruise
ship stairways leading to the grand salon. At the bottom, the look
and smell of fine wood trimmings, supple leathers, cashmeres and
other exotic materials were closer to Gulfstream and luxury yachts
than an airliner. The suites are designed by luxury yacht interior
guru Jean-Jacques Coste. The eight individual suites and four center
double suites are fully enclosed with full size doors and rolling
drapes that make them true, dining rooms, bedrooms, cinemas, offices
or simply sanctuaries of peace and relaxation. The center suites
can be opened up to create a double bed environment, As opposed
to Virgin Atlantic, we were told Singapore Airlines frowns upon
and discourages any behavior other than proper sleep in the double
suites! The details are mind boggling. A seat belt light panel allows flight
attendants to confirm seat belts are buckled without entering the
suite. The seats are 35 inches wide and with 81 inches of pitch
they allow the largest sized “rooms” in any airline in the world.
The bedrooms are complete with coat closets, office organizing space,
personal luggage areas, a guest chaise lounge and a bed which is
separate from the seat and has a 6 2’ proper mattress. The upholstery
is handmade by Italian luxury upholsterer Poltrona Frau, Chinas
and linens are from Ferragamo and the list goes on and on. Behind the suites, hallways lined up with yacht like appointments
such as orchid vases in wall nooks are oversize toilets complete
with powder rooms and changing rooms. Behind, the first class galleys
make a physical and psychological border with the economy class
cabin directly behind. The contrast between the Suites and the economy
cabin is abysmal and symbolic of the global growing divide between
middle class and the very rich. I walked to the front and noticed two steps leading up to the cockpit and the pilots’ toilets and rest area entrance door which leads to the over the ceiling bunk rooms for ultra long flights.
Back in the lively economy cabin, or according to my friend Chris
Sloan the “Riff-Raffles” section, the spirits were high and even
though we were approaching the descent point into Sydney, everyone
seemed ready to turn around and do another seven hours back to Singapore!
The flight attendants started serving the arrival snack as Captain
Ting announced that Sydney ATC had authorized a fly by the Opera
House and Harbor to silver line the inaugural flight. The thunder
of cheering and applause was even greater than the ones before as
it was now fueled by jet lag, low cabin pressure and copious amounts
of good food. alcohol and liquor. As we approached 3000 feet (as per the Airshow display), we were
in the clouds, the plane leveled off and a disappointed Ting told
us that showers and low ceilings would make the fly by impossible
and that we would head directly for landing at Sydney’s Kingsford
smith International airport. The ILS approach was flown in instrument
meteorological conditions and maneuvering and speed changes felt
no different from any other wide body. The descent pressurization
rates changes were normal and again the remarkably quiet cabin made
it difficult to judge engine power applications. The triple panel
ailerons worked their movement ballet yielding a perfectly smooth
ride and from the upper cabin landing gear deployment was almost
imperceptible, flaps came down to the landing configuration and
we broke out of clouds at approximately 1000 feet above the ground
and 150 knots according to the Airshow. Captain Ting later told
me Vref speed for the approach was 138 Knots. Over the fence, the
runway was lined up with photographers, safety and airport cars
and with an almost imperceptible flare the A380 forward titled bogeys
delivered a “smooth as silk” landing. Time was 17:21 PM, four minutes
ahead of scheduled, on the runway the plane tracked straight forward
rolling out with extremely smooth braking action. I am told the
aircraft has only reversers on the inboard engines and it they were
used we did not hear them in the cabin. A caravan of vehicles and helicopters tracked the aircraft to its
parking gate. One of the Captains made a “canned” farewell PA which
I found dry and standardized considering that the audience was coming
to grips with the anti-climactic sense that this historical flight
was almost over. We all wanted to hear the charismatic yet quirky,
in a very pleasant way, Captain Ting talk to us and were committed
to hear from him after the flight. We succeeded and later at the
airport terminal Ting would get multiple request for flight encores,
interviews, more autographs, photos and videos. Someone even asked
him to go be David Letterman’s guest or to start a reality show;
something like “Where in the World is Captain Ting today? Deplaning took no longer than in any other widebody, even considering
that the upper deck jet bridge had a glitch which delayed deplaning
by ten minutes. Nobody minded, everyone wanted to stay onboard and
keep celebrating. Some passengers would be back on the same aircraft
tin less than 24 hours for the journey to Singapore and there were
jokes about camping onboard, if SQ allowed doing it. Chris and I stayed behind chatting with the cabin crew and asked
for a cockpit tour. To our surprise, we were granted the tour and
Captain Ting himself was there finishing up paperwork and securing
the cockpit switches as the plane would be towed to a remote parking
for the night. The cockpit is basically the same as in the test
prototypes I had the chance to see at airshows, the usual Airbus
dark blue trimmings, large LCD PFD’s, ND’s and ECAM’s screens. The
center console and overhead panels seem no different than an A340
other than the cursor control devices and oversized FMS keyboards
and screens. The cockpit dimensions have very wide lateral space
due to the body rapidly increasing radius behind the radome. However
it is quite short for an airplane this size, no longer than an A330/340,
two seats in front and two in the back for observers. The reason
could that the bulkhead had to be moved forward to accommodate the
Suites immense passenger space. All Captains signed Chris' A 380 books and we followed them out of the airplane into the customs and immigration areas. The pilots looked tired, not because of the flight or operational challenges, but because of the psychological strain they were subjected to by 450+ aviation enthusiasts, bidding for their attention, photos, autographs and commentary. Little did they know that their best stardom status was yet to come in Sydney.
Leaving customs and stepping into the arrivals lounge was yet another surprise, night turned into day and TV and media crews assaulted Captain Ting, his crew, Chairman Chew and anyone who cared to talk to them. We might as well have been the first group of humans having returned from Mars. By now, the world had watched the A380 land over and over in all TV channels and again emails, faxes and phone calls were flowing to all media rooms worldwide. An hour after we entered the arrivals lounge, Captain Ting and Chairman Chew were still there talking and greeting and signing………A daily newspaper front page announced in huge bold letters: The Future Lands in Sydney Today!
Chris and I were happily tired and took a cab to our hotel, after
a shower we headed straight to a SQ380 first flight “after party”
atop the Hilton hotel in downtown Sydney. This party was organized
by aviation consultant Timothy Spahr and it was “secretly” advertised
a couple of weeks before the flight on the website www.sq380.net
. The party was intended to be SQ380 flight aftermath, a social
wrap up. All of us would have a chance to unwind, have a few drinks
(as if did not had enough in flight) and farewell each other. Unbeknownst
to us, there would also be a surreal “ceremony” I was not prepared
for. There was going to be a symbolic “beheading’ of a 747-400 to
officially proclaim the A380 the new “Queen of the Skies” . Having
flown 747-400’s and being a Boeing fan, I felt uneasy and weak all
of a sudden, after crossing 15 time zones in the lat 48 hours, enjoying
SQ’s hospitality and alcohol generosity did not help me then. A
waiter clad in black walked ceremoniously towards the “execution”
table with a hack saw . Tim Spahr produced a UAL 747-400 scale model
and proceeded to spray its nose section with Ketchup. After a short
scripted prayer dethroning the 747 as Queen of the Skies, he ordered
the executioner to proceed…….. I walked out to of the room and into
the terrace and decided not to watch. Looking at the Sydney lit
skyline a thought crossed my mind giving me a sudden burst of energy
and a jolt of joy. Who said the B 747 was the Queen of the Skies?
All along I have known the 747 as the King of the Skies. Let the
A380 be the Queen and the 747 be the King. That is a compromise
that I can live with and looking at it that way, the best 747 the
-8 is yet to come. Back in the room, we wound up the night talking, toasting, sharing
and looking at the photos of the day in which we all made flying
history.
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