SAN FRANCISCO (dpa) – “What flight is that? LH8940? It’s not here in the computer,” the receptionist in the Red Carpet Lounge at San Francisco airport says, looking perplexed.
The answer from the passengers checking in makes her even more sceptical: “It’s a special flight. The plane is out beyond the apron. You can see it from here. It’s a new plane from Europe, longer than any other jumbo jet.”
Now the receptionist is incredulous. “Longer than a jumbo?” she asks as she calls in a colleague, and then others gather to look at the Lufthansa plane and they all agree they have never seen such a large passenger jet.
What happened in San Francisco was a scene which repeated itself in spots everywhere as the mighty new giant Airbus plane, the four- engine A340-600, underwent its long-range test flight around the globe. Everywhere, astonishment.
Whether in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Montreal or Vancouver, North American air travellers were all surprised. “Europe has something like that?” they would ask about the new plane.
Even experienced American captains of the venerable Boeing 747 jumbo jet were impressed. The A340-600 at 74.8 metres is 4.13 metres longer than a B747 and even surpasses by one metre Boeing’s new twin- engine giant, the B777-300.
Together with its smaller sister version, the A340-500, the new European plane is out to revolutionise aviation in the 21st Century. And even then, the A340-600 is merely to be a stepping stone to an even more gigantic aircraft, the double-decked Airbus A380, which will be 79.8 metres long and due to start flying in four years.
But the A340-600, at a sales price of 190 million dollars, is also just as expensive as the jumbo jets coming from Boeing’s plants in Everett, Washington. So far, 62 of the new Airbus planes have been sold, with a further 28 options.
Virgin Atlantic will become the first air carrier to take delivery on the A340-600 in July. Deutsche Lufthansa will get its first air giants, capable of carrying up to 380 passengers, in September 2003. Lufthansa has ordered 10 of the planes, with an option on 10 more.
What the A340-600 means in the aviation industry is that the Europeans are breaking Boeing’s monopoly on jumbo jets.
Otto Hamann, born in 1949 and with 16,000 hours’ flying time now the technical captain of Lufthansa’s A340 fleet, is among the pilots who are flying and presenting what is the third prototype of the A340-600 in the so-called “Route Proving” operation around the world.
His verdict speaks volumes:
“This airplane has more power than anything that I know of. It is the most beautiful workplace in the skies that there is.”
Before the round the world test flights, the first three prototypes were put through the toughest tests. In Iqaluit in northern Canada, the planes’ entire systems were subject to nighttime temperatures of up to minus 40 degrees celsius. There were also braking tests on snow and ice.
The comprehensive testing added up to 422 flights and 1,300 hours flying time, with takeoffs and landings in extreme altitudes such as in La Paz, Bolivia, and so-called “hot and high” tests in Zacatecas, Mexico. There were measurements and tests in extremely hot temperatures in Tozeur, Tunesia.
Route proving flights are, in their way, a rehearsal for everyday flying operations. Besides the half dozen experienced flight captains and test pilots, along with engineers and a few tons of monitoring equipment, there are many Lufthansa and Airbus employees, chosen by lot, who were taken along to get used to the new aircraft.
Next, pilots from North America, Singapore, Bangkok and China will get their schooling in the “European giant”.
One new feature is that video cameras installed in the tail fin and the rump of the plane will permit the pilots to keep steady surveillance of all sides of the aircraft. Moreover, passengers will be able to watch all the takeoff and landing operations on their personal TV screens.
