(plane engine roaring)
- I bet the sky will never see a passenger aeroplane
as big as the A380.
Behind me, is the final A380,
just flew in from the Airbus factory.
(inspiring music)
With me in the cockpit, joining me here,
is Captain Dwayne Walker who flew
the very last A380 delivery flight
from Hamburg to Dubai here.
(inspiring music)
(plane engine roaring)
Captain, we all saw the footage.
After takeoff, you didn't just leave the field.
You came back.
You came back to say goodbye
and then you did a go-around, right?
(inspiring music)
- Well, Sam, the reason that we came around
and did the go-around was to commemorate,
you know, a special occasion.
Everybody there in Hamburg knew it was
the last day delivery of the A380
and we wanted to give it a proper send off.
So, normally, we wouldn't take off,
come back around, and land,
but it made for a really, really nice send off
for the entire Hamburg crew and the 380 in general.
- You have plenty of power.
We hear to engine roaring.
(plane engine roaring)
But we feel in crying with you
because it was the very last departing Hamburg.
- Yeah, it really was tough, you know.
As I said, my crew, it's a fairly normal flight,
but we kind of felt how like special it was
and we had to kind of put that aside
and make sure we all did our job properly,
but it was difficult to kind of set that aside
and actually not feel the weight to that special moment.
So much, you know, emotion on this aeroplane
from the engineers that spent, you know,
a better part of a decade,
you know, making this aeroplane what it is.
That we wanted to give it, you know, a proper send off,
I think they earned it and it was really
a nice, special occasion to be a part of.
And it may have been the end of the line for, you know,
this aeroplane at the factory,
but we plan on flying this aeroplane into the next decade
and passengers just love the experience.
(inspiring music)
- Also, a lots of people interest to know,
you have two different variants on the engines,
on the GP7200 and the Rolls Royce.
What's the difference in performance
on these variants on the A380?
- Yeah, so the difference in engines is marginal.
The Engine Alliance has 70,000 pounds of thrust per engine
and the Rolls Royce has 72,000 pounds of thrust per engine.
And when we first took delivery of the A380s,
the go-around was performed using something known as TOGA,
you know, full power.
Well, over the years,
they found that we didn't need full power,
you know, to perform a go-around
so we utilise something called soft go-around.
And that's what we did in Hamburg.
And you may have heard it's like a two stage power setting.
You hear the engine slowly roar, make a rumbling sound
and then the soft go-around takes effect
and it moves the 440 tonnes back into the air.
- [Sam] Tell me, with the addition of this aeroplane,
how many A380's currently operating now in Emirates fleet?
- We're currently flying just over 50 A380s
under the current programme and we're adding more every week.
So although Echo Victor's here
was the end for the Airbus factory,
it's just the beginning for us
and we're continuing to get as many A380s
back in the air as possible
and give that experience to our customers
well into the next decade.
- I think, not just myself, a lot of passengers
who have felt and tried the A380,
fall in love with this aeroplane
because there's no mini aeroplane
can offer this spaciousness.
(upbeat music)
We saw the beautiful cabin on this 380.
There's a lots of work actually behind the delivery
of such an aeroplane at the manufacturers
and together with a substance team from the airline,
the have to do all the ground check,
the cabin check, the cockpit check,
pilot performing acceptance test flights at IASA.
The Civil Aviation Authority has to issue
the air worthiness review certificate
before delivering to the customer like Emirates.
(upbeat music)
So I was having the tour in the cabin.
I met the engineer here who was actually
preparing the very last A380 to enter commercial service.
In fact, it'll enter service this Friday to Frankfurt.
Amjad, I think you've got a few things to show me
what you're doing to preparing this, right?
- Yup, so come with me.
I'll show you what we do.
You can see
when we received the aircraft,
it's pretty much as Emirates configuration,
but we do some additional work.
Like we installed this placard on the doors
so that the passengers, they know which door they are...
Our passenger, cabin crew, they know which door they are at.
- [Sam] Ah, you adding the placard
when the plane arrive in Dubai.
- That's correct.
We installed this additional equipment for the cabin crew.
If you see that.
So this is for the back cabin crew
for them to use it in case of emergencies.
All right, sound check this one now.
- What's there? - This is a scalar mobile.
We installed it all here in Dubai
after we received the aircraft from Hamburg.
And this is used for the people of (indistinct)
to carry them on board in the upper deck
for the first class or business class or the lounge area.
- Oh, so you carry people
who need to use this mobile unit to go upstairs?
- That's correct. - Oh.
I never seen something like that.
Never thought you have something like this.
So you guys installed this in Dubai
when the aeroplane arrived.
- Yeah.
We also installed an RFID tag.
- [Sam] What's RFID?
- It's radio frequency identification tag
which already installed inside the life vest.
So what we do is like when we do a maintenance scan,
it catches by itself saying that this particular life vest
is installed at this location.
- [Sam] So you will remembered the seats.
This is from Seat 35A, something like that?
- That's correct.
Business class over here, we do instal a protective cover
so that, you know, the seat won't get damaged
when the passengers or the trolleys are moving,
to protect the seats because it's so very expensive.
- I want to share with you something very personal.
I will never forget the dates 27, April, 2005.
What happened on this date?
It's because the very first A380 made a departure.
I came all the way through 22 hours from Australia
to Toulouse in France among many people.
We went there.
We went to witness the history,
the very first A380 takeoff.
570 tonnes, an aeroplane, rotate just like that.
It was a dream for many people
to see the world's biggest aeroplane airborne.
And I will never forget that date.
(upbeat music)
You might have a question.
How much does an A380 cost?
The list price of an A380 is 445 million.
It makes it the world's most expensive passenger aircraft
and the most lavish one, of course,
but the A380 hasn't been the game changer Airbus has hoped.
With the advancement of the twin engine efficiency aircraft,
the A380 production stopped at just 251.
And this is the very last A380 I'm sitting on.
I guess the silver lining message out of all this
is that this aeroplane will be start flying soon
for the next 10 to 15 years.
So there'll be still a lots of time
for people to enjoy the A380.
(inspiring music)
(inspiring music fades) (plane engine roars)
Thanks for loving the A380 like I do.
And here's to many more happy landings.