One big bird

No, I am not reliving my love of that big yellow bird from Sesame Street. I'm talking about my first trip on the Airbus 380. I just flew it on my return flight from Sydney.

A few facts about the A380:
-Seats 471 passengers (399 of which are in economy)
-Could seat up to 853 passengers if all seats were economy
-Is the worlds largest passenger aircraft
-Double-decker aircraft
-50% less cabin noise than the 747
-240 ft long
-292 ft wing span

I was seated in economy on the main deck...the lower of the two levels. I was curious to see if I could hear any noise from the 200+ passengers that were walking on the upper deck of the airplane. I actually could not hear them at all. In fact, the ceiling and overall configuration of the cabin in the main deck looks just like any other airplane. You completely forget that all of those passengers are sitting above you. The thing that kept reminding me was the pitch of the wing. I was seated about dead center of wing and looking out the wing actually pitched upwards instead of going out horizontally. And by upwards I'm talking to the point where you couldn't see past it.

It was an incredibly quiet flight...as quiet as airplane jets can be. The takeoff and landing were quite smooth as well. I figured I'd definitely feel the difference due to the sheer size of the A380 especially during takeoff. I have to honestly say that it was probably less noticeable than a 747.

Overall the cabin amenities are much nicer on it. The cabin is wider which allows for wider seats. Nothing spacious but I could tell a difference. Singapore Airlines has configured economy so that it is a 3/4/3 seating configuration. They easily could have squeezed in 3/5/3 or probably even more but they opted to allow passengers a bit more comfort. The main deck is divided into 4 sections. The front of the cabin is the business class seating and the remaining 3 sections are economy. Each section is divided by either a galley or lavatories. In addition, each section has a crew of 4 flight attendants.

Ultimately it is just another airplane. The guy that I sat next to was a complete pain in the rear...fidgeted the entire flight, stared at me while I was eating, kept looking at my TV screen, bumped my arm and leg about every 6.8 seconds...grr... The food was okay (stellar by US airline standards). There are individual TV screens for every seat and they are a nice size and there is quite a large selection of on demand movies and TV shows. Who knows...maybe I am just a bit jaded because I spend so much time on planes.

I have a hard time wrapping my brain around how a plane that size can manage to fly. It is especially amazing to see one take off. All in all I'd have to say that it was a good experience. Maybe the next time I'll be in business class and maybe at some point I'll be lucky enough to experience one of the private suites...a gal can dream...