The Airbus A380 carries larger numbers of passengers than any previous commercial aircraft. With 50percent more floor space than a Boeing747, airlines will be able to choose between offering luxurious, spacious accommodation and providing economy-class seating for as many as 850 passengers.

Airbus’s fly-by-wire technology puts high demands on the plane’s seals; more wear and tear, and a need to withstand higher temperatures. Trelleborg has developed advanced seals, with a 25-year life-span, to meet this challenge.

For 35 years the Boeing747 has had the title to itself, but now the AirbusA380 threatens to become the new ‘Queen of the Skies’. The official launch, at Airbus’ headquarters in Toulouse in was a bit like a coronation. The gleaming white double-decker giant was unveiled in a two-hour show featuring opera music, dancers, trapeze artists and dry ice. The monster dwarfed even the great men present, like Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schröder, Tony Blair and José Luis Zapatero, the heads of government of the four countries – France, Germany, Britain and Spain – which have a stake in Airbus.

“It’s the realisation of a dream of many people to build an airplane to change air transport in the 21st century, the way the 747 changed air transport in the 20th,” said Airbus’ chief commercial officer John Leahy.

The A380 offers new opportunities and sets new challenges for the industry. Airports are being redesigned to cope with the large number of passengers and their baggage. The standard three-class version of the plane will carry 550 people – an all-economy configuration could carry 850. Airbus is also considering a stretched version for up to 1000 passengers.

The A380 takes off and lands within the same distance as current planes, and has a

20-wheel undercarriage which is no wider and puts no more pressure on the tarmac per wheel than other big planes, so changes to runways will be minimal. But service roads running parallel to runways may have to be moved further away because of the A380’s wingspan, and taxiways will have to be enlarged. Passengers will probably enter the plane on two floors – first class upstairs, economy below – and baggage conveyors will be wider. Leahy says the plane will feel like a cruise liner, where people don’t rush in and out. They will sit at the bar and relax. In reality, crews may still be trying to ensure quick turnarounds. Each hour this plane spends on the ground will cost US$20000 in lost revenues.

While the 747 has two decks only at the front of the plane, the A380 is a double-decker all the way through. That feature gives it most of its extra capacity. It is also slightly wider than a 747.

According to Airbus spokesman David Voskuhl: “It’s like an A340 with a 747 on top. So there’ll be more space, even for standard seating.” However, for economy passengers, they might just get a self-service café where they can wait for all those other passengers to board.

Voskuhl says: “The airlines gave us the task of making the plane 15percent cheaper to operate. How the airline translates that saving into seating, facilities and prices is their business. Our job is to provide the technology to make things like bars and showers possible.” But the real difference is likely to be in the premium classes. Although the A380 will carry 30percent more passengers than the 747, it will have 50percent more floor space.

Airlines can offer luxury accommodation with private rooms and showers, shops and bars, even a gym.

Airbus’s fly-by-wire technology puts much higher demands on the seals; it means more wear and tear, and they need to withstand higher temperatures. To meet this challenge, Trelleborg has developed seals made from new, more advanced materials.

Torben Andersen, manager of the Aerospace Europe segment at Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, says the company supplies two kinds of seals. “Airframe seals compensate for irregularities and tempe rature changes between airframe sections. They’re also used where flaps close and ensure a flush aerodynamic profile. And we also supply seals for the hydraulic systems which adjust the flaps controlling the flight path.”

Andersen says Airbus’s fly-by-wire technology puts much higher demands on the seals. “With the old joystick, the pilots moved the flaps and then left them. Now the flaps are being adjusted all the time to improve aerodynamics. In addition, the demand for ever smaller hydraulic cylinders means that they get warmer, requiring more advanced materials.”

For more information, visit www.trelleborg.com