25th October 2007 - First Flight

A date I am so looking forward to and one I am sure I will always remember.

I will be on this aircraft flying from Singapore to Sydney.. on the first ever commercial flight of the A380.

These stamps will be on covers I have designed and which I will carry on the flight, and which I hope to get franked in Singapore airport, and then franked again on arrival in Sydney.... and if I am really smooth talking maybe signed by some of the crew...

I will make a limited edition and yes, I will sell a few to cover the costs but also to let collectors have something rather special, well I hope so. If you are interested please email me at cddstamps@gmail.com ..

I am only looking at producing 25 copies.. maybe less.. so these will be quite unique as I see it.

I've been interested in the A380 for quite some time.. years in fact, and I produced a flight cover for it's first flight into Sydney.. as some of you may recall.. I even wrote a blog on the stamps of the A380.. but somehow it fell by the wayside.. I lost the link and the material I created.. and didn't continue.. I should have really.. anyway....I am copying some material from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A380 ( you can read lots more details there) so you can read something about the aircraft itself. Apology if this doesn't interest you.. but I think it is quite interesting so am sharing my interest with you.

Five A380s were built for testing and demonstration purposes.The first prototype, serial number 001 and registration F-WWOW, was unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse on 18th January 2005. Its maiden flight took place on 27th April 2005. The prototype, equipped with Trent 900 engines, departed runway 32L of Toulouse Blagnac International Airport with a flight crew of six headed by chief test pilot Jacques Rosay, carrying 20 tonnes of flight test instrumentations and water ballast. The take-off weight of the aircraft was 421 tonnes (464 short tons); although this was only 75 percent of its maximum take-off weight, it was the heaviest take-off weight of any passenger airliner ever flown.

In mid-November 2005, the A380 embarked on a tour of Southeast Asia and Australia for promotional and for long-haul flight testing purposes, visiting Singapore, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur. During this tour, the livery of Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Malaysia Airlines were applied in addition to the Airbus house livery. On 19th November, an A380 flew in full Emirates livery at the Dubai Air Show.

On 1st December 2005, the A380 achieved its maximum design speed of Mach 0.96, in a shallow dive, completing the opening of the flight envelope. The aircraft's maximum allowed operational speed is lower, at Mach 0.89, and its cruising speed is Mach 0.85.

On 10th January 2006, the A380 made its first transatlantic flight to Medellín in Colombia, to test engine performance at a high altitude airport. It arrived in North America on 6 February, when an A380 landed in Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada for cold-weather testing. The same aircraft then flew to Singapore to participate in the Asian Aerospace 2006 exhibition, in full Singapore Airlines livery.

On 26th March 2006, the A380 underwent evacuation certification in Hamburg in Germany. With 8 of the 16 exits blocked, 853 passengers and 20 crew left the aircraft in 78 seconds, less than the 90 seconds required by certification standards. Three days later, the A380 received European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to carry up to 853 passengers.

The first A380 planned for delivery to a customer, serial number 003 and registration F-WWSA, took to the air in May 2006. The maiden flight of the first A380 with GP7200 engines (F-WWEA) took place on 25 August 2006.

On 4 September 2006, the first full passenger-carrying flight test took place. The aircraft flew from Toulouse with 474 Airbus employees on board, in the first of a series of flights to test passenger facilities and comfort. In November 2006, a further series of route proving flights took place to demonstrate the aircraft's performance for 150 flight hours under typical airline operating conditions.

As of September 2007, ten A380s had flown, and the five A380s in the test programme had logged over 2,900 hours during 1,995 test flights. During testing and route proving, the A380 visited 24 countries: Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Hong Kong , Iceland, India, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and United States of America. Airbus obtained the A380 type certificate from the EASA and FAA on 12 December 2006 in a joint ceremony at the company's French headquarters. The airframe still needs to receive production certification.

Amazing me thinks.. and this only scratches the surface of the awesome facts and figures and information athat exists about this aircraft.

So, were you paying attention ..........when was its maiden flight.. date, month and year.. and a prize... a flight cover.. not A380 though.. to the first three correct answers... hey, are you pleased you read this far

Enjoy your stamps.. have a great weekend.. best wishes.. Michael