World's biggest airliner takes off on maiden flight

The world's biggest airliner, the Airbus A380 double-decker, successfully took off on its maiden flight Wednesday at the Airbus headquarters outside of the city of Toulouse in southern France. (Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

    PARIS, April 27 (Xinhuanet) -- The world's biggest airliner, the Airbus A380 double-decker, successfully took off on its maiden flight Wednesday at the Airbus headquarters outside of the city of Toulouse in southern France.

    The A380 taxied down the runway before taking off steadily intothe blue sky, arousing crazy cheers from the 50,000 enthusiastic spectators, TV footage showed.

    The plane is to touch down at the airport between one and five hours later, "depending on the weather conditions and how the plane feels to the pilots," Airbus program director Charles Champion said.

    The successful take-off of the jumbo airliner means that the A380 has replaced the US plane maker Boeing Company's 747 Boeing as the biggest airliner to fly.

    The four-engine super jumbo can carry up to 840 passengers and fly 8,000 miles (15,000 kilometers) non-stop. With a research costof some 12 billion euros (15.68 billion US dollars), the plane hasgained from 15 customers 154 orders, 285 million US dollars each.

    Airbus claims the A380 will be a more efficient plane by using 20 percent less fuel, flying quieter and cheaper and offering 30 to 50 percent more seating.

    The A380, unveiled on Jan. 18, has been undergoing ground testssince early April and is scheduled to go into service in 2006. Enditem