The Airbus A380: ‘The Mother Load’

Last April, the Airbus A380—the world’s largest airliner that can shuttle a whopping 550-plus passengers—took its maiden flight. P. J. O’Rourke, for one, was not happy with the public’s response. “What a poor, dull response to a miracle of engineering,” he writes in a feature about the new jet in the November issue of The Atlantic Monthly. “The A380 is a Lourdes apparition at the departure ramp. Consider just two of its marvels: Its takeoff weight is 1.235 million pounds. And it takes off…However, the only expressions of awe over the A380’s specifications that I’ve heard have been awful predictions of the crowding inside.” Those fears, he writes, “tend to be somewhat exaggerated.”

O’Rourke’s story takes the reader to Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France, where company officials talk up the new jet, and he explores the mechanics and engineering of the plane, which he readily admits he barely understands. The first couple of paragraphs of the story are available online.

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