Original subtitles

Soaring through the skies at more than 950 kilometers per hour.

This is the best moment because the engines are pushing.

A new breed of airliner.

The door is so big you can literally fit a car in there sideways.

Isn't this machine impressive?

Made for more than 4 million components and carrying over 500 passengers on the

longest routes around the planet.

The A380 Super Jumbo is the most powerful aircraft of its kind.

With unprecedented access to its operations on the ground... And

in flight...

We'll blow this $400 million monster apart.

To uncover its technological secrets.

From a double -decker airframe made from advanced composites to

40 -meter -long wings that give it incredible lift.

We'll reveal how this extraordinary super jumbo evolved

to rise above all other machines.

Welcome to Los Angeles International Airport.

Also known as LAX, it's one of the busiest airport hubs in the world.

Every year, more than 70 million people travel from here to 150 destinations

across the globe.

Worldwide air traffic is at an all -time high and is increasing by 15 % every

year.

Airports are fast running out of takeoff and landing slots, and the skies are

getting crammed.

This machine is designed

to change all that.

Built to fly 80 ,000 kilometers per week, along the world's longest routes,

carries 100 more people than a 747.

It is the A380 Super Jumbo, the biggest passenger jet the world has ever

seen. It's tremendous to me to see something this size flying in the air,

actually. The North American and European flight market is one of the

competitive in the world, worth over $40 billion a year.

Airline operator Air France has bought a nine -strong fleet of A380 Super Jumbos

to gain a bigger slice of this market.

Each A380 costs $400 million and is an extraordinary engineering

wonder.

She has two decks, one stacked on top of the other, that hold more than 500

people and 60 metric tons of cargo.

She has four engines, which generate the thrust of seven F -18 fighter jets.

And her 40 -meter wings create 560 metric tons of lifting force

to thrust the biggest passenger plane on Earth into the sky.

This Air France A380 has just landed at LAX.

You do the back loader.

Drive, drive, drive.

David Mitchell runs ground operations, leading a team of seven working

beneath the massive jet.

I'm in charge of the loading and operation of the aircraft from the water

cargo to all the passengers' bags.

David's team has only two and a half hours to turn the Super Jumbo around and

set it back on its way as flight 065 to Paris.

Captain Claude Godel will be at the helm of this flight.

An experienced A380 pilot, Claude has logged over a million kilometers in the

A380 Super Jumbo.

Today, he and his crew of 23 leave their hotel for LAX.

The captain.

has a huge responsibility, but he can rely on a first officer and the cabin

to help the captain to take the right decision and cope with this huge

responsibility.

A good pilot is the one who has the same number of landings as they can.

Claude's mission, to fly from Los Angeles International, 9 ,000 kilometers

across the USA and the Atlantic Ocean.

to his final destination, one of Europe's busiest airports,

Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Today, Claude's plane is running late because it arrived into LAX one hour

behind schedule.

Today we will have more than 500 passengers on board, but 330 will have a

connection in Paris. So if we arrive late, they will have a problem.

They may miss their connection.

Missed connections cost the U .S. air industry over $8 billion a year in

alternative flights and overnight hotels.

It's critical Claude's super jumbo arrives in Paris on time.

Two hours to take off.

Air France, head to Paris.

50 ,000 employees work at LAX, helping to process passengers through the

terminal. Air France, that flight to Paris today is pretty full.

It's an A380, carries over 500 people.

So between now and the next hour and a half, I'll probably lift maybe three

of luggage.

The Super Jumbo's late arrival into LAX could mean a travel nightmare for those

catching a connecting flight.

The flight is like a 40 -minute delay, so I'm going to check their connection,

okay? Okay, very good.

Yeah, it's a tight one.

In the airline briefing room, Claude and his co -pilots review their flight

plan.

Today's journey will be far from routine.

Flying conditions over the Atlantic look ominous.

Claude is pinning his hopes on a 370 -kilometer -an -hour tailwind to help

make up some of the delay.

But it could be bumpy.

Too late in Paris.

Okay, now it's time to go. We have to go now.

One, two, front loader.

The ground crew has to pump in 165 ,000 liters of fuel and load up to 1

,000 pieces of luggage, working against the clock.

We've got about 41 minutes left.

Time is always crucial.

The planes don't make money on the ground.

They only make money in the air.

Everything about this aircraft is supersized.

The door is so big you can literally fit a car in there sideways.

Loading cargo on board this monster jet is a big job as the hold stretches half

the length of its body.

We're in the front hold of the aircraft. The nose of the aircraft will be over

there. We're pretty much in the belly of the beast.

They load luggage into 38 steel containers.

Each is the size and weight of a small car.

They make everything really easy on this aircraft.

Yeah, it just easily goes in.

Intelligent runners in the floor help shuttle the cargo around the hole.

The passengers, cargo, and fuel make up more than half of the aircraft's 560

metric ton weight at takeoff.

Remarkably, This super jumbo can carry six metric tons more than its own body

weight.

That's thanks to its extraordinary lightweight construction.

The shell of this titan is built like a featherweight.

Only 49 ribs span the 73 -meter -long fuselage.

Surrounded by skin that is thinner than cardboard.

But it's designed to be incredibly strong.

by borrowing technology inspired by an ancient warrior, Alexander the Great,

had a secret weapon.

Tunics made from layers of linen and glue.

The linen and glue combined to form an extremely tough armor that

made Alexander's army nearly unstoppable.

The A380 has upgraded this body armor.

Instead of linen, there's a glass fiber mesh stronger than steel.

Sandwiched between ultra -thin aluminum, making up its super -light skin to save

800 kilograms in weight.

But it's strong enough to support 90 metric tons of wings and engines and can

handle almost anything nature can throw at it.

40 minutes to take off.

Isn't this machine impressive?

I'm always astonished because it's important for us to see it from here

once we are in the cockpit, we don't remember the size of the plane that we

behind us.

We actually got two more bags getting ready to come.

We need to get a jump on it. You got a runner?

Yeah, they're right here.

You want to go up there and kind of help them out because we're running out of

time here.

We've got 18 minutes left.

The final 21 bags belonging to the crew make it into the hold.

This is it right here.

So we're going to close it up unless we get a last -minute dog something.

Oh, look, yeah, we have a dog.

Whoa, it's a big dog.

The Super Jumbo's rear cargo hold has automated climate control, which should

keep this pooch flying comfortably.

Hey, Knox, after this, close it up.

By working fast, the ground crew has reduced the 40 -minute delay.

As far as the delay, I think we caught up about maybe 11 minutes.

Next challenge.

Weave a path to the runway.

A risky maneuver with a jet this big in an airport where one plane leaves every

55 seconds.

I'm ensuring the clear path to the runway.

At Los Angeles International Airport,

the A380 Super Jumbo is ready to begin its 9 ,000 -kilometer journey to Paris.

Get ready for pushback. We got about 10 minutes left.

The flight is running 30 minutes late.

Two -thirds of the passengers on board have to make connections in Paris.

Loading over 500 passengers onto the Super Jumbo speedily requires a custom

-built double -decker loading system.

It's designed to shuttle one passenger on board every five seconds.

From economy, where tickets cost $900, to first class.

where one seat costs $8 ,000.

The race is on to board all passengers in 40 minutes.

In the

cockpit, Captain Claude completes pre -flight checks.

So here you are in what is called the blue cockpit, an Airbus cockpit.

It's our office. It's the best place.

The A380's advanced fly -by -wire technology sends signals from the six

computers to the aircraft's vital components at lightning speed.

Okay, I release the brake. If everything is clear on the plane, we may start

push.

Yes, I will call you back, but the aircraft is clear.

So we're going to push back south now.

David Mitchell is driving the only tractor at LAX with enough power to

metric tons of super jumbo.

Okay, so now we're going to disconnect the tow bar.

Parking brake is set. You may disconnect the tow bar.

The world's biggest passenger aircraft is about to be switched on.

The four colossal engines will soon blast air backwards at 1 ,300 kilometers

hour, creating gusts powerful enough to knock over a truck.

The mechanic is going to start the engines pretty soon here, so it's going

get a little loud.

David's team must retreat to a safe distance before Claude awakes this

Each engine weighs seven metric tons. All four cost

$70 million.

That's a sixth of the cost of the entire plane.

The next few minutes are critical.

This aircraft is full of highly flammable aviation fuel, so Claude must

care steering the Super Jumbo down the taxiways.

Taxiing is probably the most critical phase with the A380. We have to be very,

very careful due to the fact that he has a span of 80 meters.

The huge wings of the A380 skim the very edge of LAX's taxiways,

so Claude can't reach the runway without help.

Air France 65 Super at Delta, give way, Aeromexico, Boeing 737.

Wing Marshal Benjamin Chai rides to the rescue.

Move back a little bit further.

LA ground in position with Air France 65 Super.

I'm ensuring the aircraft has a clear path to the runway, basically guarding

wing tip.

With hundreds of service vehicles and over 1 ,700 flights every day, LAX's

taxiways are some of the busiest in the world.

It's a tense tow to the final turn.

On to LAX's north runway for takeoff.

In the next seconds, Captain Claude will have the full power of the biggest

passenger aircraft in the world in his control.

Under the hood of the engines, 24 high -precision fan blades,

Slight through the air.

Their tips moving faster than the speed of sound.

The blades are made from light, but strong titanium.

The edge of the blades are sculpted like an ancient Japanese weapon of war.

The samurai sword.

Early samurai swords had straight blades.

They were sharp, but lacked punch.

Redesigning the blade to be curved focused the strike force on a single

So the sword could slice through almost anything.

The A380 takes this idea to the extreme.

The jet fan's curved titanium blades carve through 1 .2 metric tons of air

second.

Their edges run less than a millimeter from the housing.

Together, they generate the power of more than 1 ,800 cars, pushing

560 metric tons of A380 on its way.

Claude releases the brakes and pushes the throttle.

The Super

Jumbo accelerates from a standing start to 300 kilometers per hour in just 50

seconds.

This is known as the point of no return. The aircraft is committed to takeoff.

There is now not enough runway to stop.

This is when the engines work the hardest.

Every second, a liter of fuel explodes in a combustion chamber.

This scorching hot air slams into turbines at the back.

spinning them around at 10 ,000 RPM.

The turbines connect to the giant fan blades at the front that push air

into the heart of the engines, giving the A380 the power of seven

F -18 fighter jets.

With all its engines at full throttle, Air France Flight 065 must lift off.

One in ten fatal accidents occur on takeoff.

The next five seconds are make or break for everybody on board.

At Los Angeles International Airport, the A380 Super Jumbo, the world's

passenger jet, is hurtling down the runway en route to Paris.

The engines are at full throttle, pushing the Super Jumbo to a speed of

kilometers per hour.

But to lift this 560 metric ton bird off the runway, the A380

must pull off an amazing shape -shifting trick.

The key to liftoff is hidden inside its wings.

They're crammed with hydraulic pipes and cylinders.

so the A380 can soar like the king of the skies, the American bald

eagle. It's a master of slow flying.

It angles its wings to create more lift and spreads out two feathery fingers

to speed up the airflow, keeping six kilograms of bird afloat with ease.

The A380 takes this idea to the extreme.

At takeoff, hydraulic rams kick in.

They push out the front and back of the wings, extending the surface area by

20%. This creates 28 metric tons of extra lift, boosting the

jet off the runway.

Flaps locked in place, the Super Jumbo takes to the skies, giving Wing Marshal

Ben a moment to enjoy the view.

It's amazing to see how this big aircraft takes off and seeing those

up like that. It's amazing.

I love this job.

But Ben's job is not over yet.

Working with air traffic control,

he must inspect the runway after every A380 takes off.

Violent air currents stirred up by this monster jet can leave a trail of debris.

that could be sucked in by the next aircraft in the queue.

I'm ensuring that the Airbus 380 with its jet blast hasn't knocked over any

lines, there isn't any damage to the runway.

Ben has less than five minutes to carry out the check and confirm the runway is

safe for the next plane to take off.

LA Tower, City Office 142, clear of runway 24L at Echo 17.

Thanks for your help.

and that's it so we could resume normal operations job well done runway two

four left for takeoff

departure

good evening this is air france 65 super passing one thousand climbing five

thousand hitting two one zero

The 560 metric ton super jumbo climbs to a height of 1 ,000 meters in less than

two minutes.

This is the best moment because the engines are pushing.

We are finally in the air. I enjoyed hand -flying the aircraft, but now it's

time for the autopilot.

This is when the brain of the machine takes over.

It starts by moving some of the plane's heaviest cargo around, 165 ,000

liters of fuel.

Fuel tanks are crammed into every corner of this aircraft.

Even the tail is filled with 15 ,000 liters of fuel at takeoff.

But once airborne, the plane moves the fuel around its body.

pumps for 16 metric tons of kerosene into tanks in the tips of the wings in

than 20 minutes.

This balances the aircraft perfectly and keeps it rock solid, even in

turbulence.

For now, Claude places his trust and the

passengers' safety in the hands of the A380's advanced computer system.

One of the best moments of the flight when we get our dinner.

That means that we have reached our cruising altitude. Everything is running

per design for the moment.

Smooth running of the aircraft and the lives of everyone on board rely on its

four engines working flawlessly through every flight.

A crack team of engineers tests each engine to its limits at Air France's

headquarters in Paris.

To test an engine this powerful, they have to seal it inside a bunker that has

concrete walls almost a meter thick.

The engineers scrutinize every aspect of the engine's performance in a simulated

takeoff.

This engine fails its vibration test.

It will have to be rebuilt before it's fit to fly.

The Super Jumbo's engines are at full thrust.

531 people now sit 39 ,000 feet above the ground in a metal tube.

Exposure to the outside elements would cause hypothermia in less than five

minutes.

At the moment, the outside temperature is minus 60 degrees Celsius, minus 60.

We should not forget, never, that the real light is just outside on the other

side of the window.

Every one of the aircraft's four million parts will have to work perfectly to

protect the passengers from this deadly external environment.

The A380 Super Jumbo hurtles through the sky at 950 kilometers an hour.

The aircraft is 50 minutes into its 9 ,000 kilometer journey from LAX

to Paris.

The Super Jumbo's engines power the aircraft up to a cruising altitude.

that is almost one and a half times higher than the peak of Mount Everest.

At this height, there is not enough oxygen for a human being to survive.

We are flying at 39 ,000 feet, meaning 12 ,000 meters.

But the passenger and we in the cockpit are breathing normally.

An extraordinary system feeds this aircraft with oxygen to keep passengers

alive.

It's hidden just outside the cabin.

Right next to the engines, a pipe pushes scorching hot but

oxygen -rich air from the turbines into a unique cooling system. It evolved

from one of nature's giants, the African elephant.

This mammal has air conditioning built into its ears, a web of blood vessels as

large as a dinner table, through which 15 liters of blood flows every minute.

With one flap of its ears, the elephant can chill its blood by 5 degrees to keep

cool under the blazing sun.

The A380 takes this idea to the extreme.

A heat exchanger with 5 square meters of surface area chills hot,

oxygenated air from the turbines down from a lethal 240 degrees.

to a pleasant 24 and channels it to passengers inside, keeping them

easily.

We still have Las Vegas not too far away on the left -hand side here.

Airborne for almost an hour.

Now over Nevada, the Super Jumbo is riding in a layer of stable air.

There are no turbulence to expect at our level for the moment, so that's why the

passengers are allowed to circulate.

The cabin crew seizes the opportunity to get to work.

They have just two hours to heat, serve, and clear away dinner for 507

passengers.

The only way they could pull this off is by preparing the food in advance.

It happens here in Los Angeles, in one of the biggest airport kitchens in the

world.

On the A380, for your special meal, make sure you get a special meal sticker

from Dispatch. We have a completely full flight, and that is going to be 67

business class, 38 premium economy, and 389 economy class meals.

Currently, she's packing the business class. That's 64 breakfast at this

station. And they are packing 64 of the dinner at the station in front of us.

Anita's team prepares 10 ,000 meals every night before takeoff, just minutes

from LAX's runway.

Here is our A380 flight.

You can see it takes up most of the room in this cooler.

I have to allow time for the transportation to push the flight out to

them to load the truck.

The security has to check the trucks as well, and then that's pretty much it.

Anita's crew loads 10 metric tons of ready -made food and drink into 99

onto the plane just before passengers embark.

Serving 10 restaurants' worth of food in areas no larger than a broom closet

takes great skill.

507 finished meals create enough garbage to fill a truck.

With so little space to spare, the crew relies on this ingenious machine.

It has a unique way of handling waste.

The Super Jumbo has four mini garbage trucks built into its galleys.

Hidden inside are hydraulic pistons. The crunch waste was five metric tons of

force, down to a third of its size, leaving

more space for the passengers.

Intelligent innovations like this transform the A380 into a two -story

hotel, taking much of the strain off the crew.

The

mood

in the cabin is relaxed.

But Claude knows that the most difficult part of the journey lies directly

ahead.

Turbulent airspace.

Even in an A380, turbulence can cause chaos.

The A380 Super Jumbo is nearly halfway into its 9 ,000 -kilometer journey from

Los Angeles to Paris.

The aircraft

left LAX 30 minutes behind schedule.

Captain Claude now has one final chance to make up the delay by hitching a lift

on the jet stream.

The jet stream is a band of fast -moving air, high up in the atmosphere.

If Claude catches this tailwind, he can shave an hour off the trip.

But first, he must break through the raging air on the edge of the jet stream

that's tumbling at hurricane speed.

We don't have too much turbulence in order to allow a safe service to our

passengers.

Turbulence can be extremely dangerous, as seen in these photos taken in 2013.

Eleven passengers were injured in this A380 Super Jumbo when it suddenly

20 meters.

Anything not tied down smashed into the ceiling.

To keep the passengers safe, Claude decides to fly 900 meters higher than

to avoid the roughest air.

The speed of the aircraft compared to the ground is exactly 575 knots. The 190

kilometer an hour tailwind from the jet stream is pushing the aircraft to almost

90 % of the speed of sound.

Probably in the middle of the tunnel, in the middle of the jet wind.

Claude has managed to position the Super Jumbo exactly where he wants it.

So far, Captain Claude's plan is working.

He's clawed back 30 minutes of the delay, crossing the Atlantic with barely

bump.

We managed to avoid turbulence.

We didn't have really turbulence.

Now, Captain Claude and his crew must prepare for the most dangerous part of

whole journey.

Touchdown.

Voilà. Now we are ready to start descent.

We're going to be landing soon.

So we have to put everything away in the galley.

And in a few moments, we're going to be preparing all the passengers at the

cabin for landing.

Ladies and gentlemen, less than five minutes. It will already be time to

our descent towards Paris -Charles -de -Gaulle, where we land in 35 minutes

now.

531 lives now depend on the soft cushion of 22 wheels in the landing gear

beneath the jet.

Landing checklist.

Landing checklist complete.

The A380's tires have to be super strong to withstand the impact of the 400

metric ton plane as it touches down.

At the Air France maintenance hangar in Paris, engineer Charles Jackson inspects

the tires on each A380 for signs of wear or damage.

This tire's possibly been through 200 landings already.

It's worn to its limit.

It's going to have to be changed.

Each tire costs several thousand dollars and is handmade to precise tolerances.

This tire has 40 layers, one on top of the other of steel belts and rubber and

nylon. It's much more like a tire they would use in Formula One.

It's very sticky, and that helps with the braking action on the runway.

That helps it to not slide off the runway when they're landing.

It takes engineers more than an hour to change each tire.

The wheels now in place. That's it. We can put the airplane back on its feet.

Thanks to maintenance like this, Captain Claude can be confident that his tires

shouldn't fail on landing.

After 10 hours in the air, the flight crew prepare for touchdown.

We are all a little bit tired, so...

Radio receivers keep track of the A380's position to help Claude steer it to a

precise spot on the runway below.

200.

Minimum. Over 500 people and 400 metric tons of aircraft are relying on the

Super Jumbo's computers to help Claude to touch down safely.

50, 40, 30, 20, retard, 10,

5.

Moving at 250 kilometers an hour and with just 2 ,700 meters of runway.

Everything now hinges on the aircraft's brakes kicking into action.

Hidden in the landing gear is the key to its stopping power.

Steel arms clamp onto 16 brake discs, which heat up to 500 degrees in an

instant.

To stop them from melting, they are made from a super strong material.

It's similar to the heat shield that protected NASA's space shuttle.

Its nose and wings were covered in special tiles made from carbon fiber and

graphite.

They could take temperatures twice as hot as molten lava to give the shuttle a

safe journey home.

The A380 takes this carbon fiber technology to the extreme.

Its brakes are reinforced with silicone carbide, which is tougher than diamond.

With such extreme materials under the hood, the brakes can survive immense

and friction to help stop 400 metric tons of Airbus without a fail.

But the disc brakes cannot safely stop the A380 before the end of the runway on

their own.

One final mission -critical component is needed to bring this beast to a halt.

50, 40, 30.

Traveling at 250 kilometers per hour, the A380 Super Jumbo slams onto the

at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

This is a critical moment.

To keep the plane on the ground, Claude must force the weight of the Super Jumbo

down onto the landing gear.

He kills the lift from the wings with the push of a button.

Hydraulic rams kick into action.

They push up 16 gigantic wingtop spoilers that disrupt the airflow and

force the plane's weight onto the tarmac.

This keeps the aircraft on the ground as it slows down.

The 400 metric ton super jumbo decelerates to 30 kilometers an hour in

seconds.

After inheriting a one hour delay in Los Angeles,

Claude's plan to make up time by hitching a ride on the jet stream has

By flying 900 meters higher than normal, Claude avoided the extreme turbulence

and 507 passengers crossed the Atlantic, hardly feeling a bump.

The flight arrives at the stand in Paris, exactly on schedule.

I think we can be pleased of the flight because we left Los Angeles with

quite a lot of delay.

We were late and we arrived on time.

We managed to avoid the turbulence.

We have done the job.

For the 330 passengers on board who have

connecting flights.

Claude's decision to use the Jetstream's hurricane -strength tailwinds to claw

back time means good news.

Bye -bye.

I think all the passengers are happy because we are on time.

We are on time, so that's the good news. I can make my connection without being

stressed about it, so everything is panning out pretty well.

Bye -bye.

Bye -bye.

This plane is a real pleasure for the pilot.

Many other pilots would like to fly this aircraft.

It's also a responsibility because we are landing this aircraft on runways

are covered with snow or not easy.

Each flight is a different story, and we will go and have our rest. But the

machine is like an industry machine. It is made to work.

For the super jumbo, there really is no rest at all.

The ground crew has two and a half hours to turn the plane around and send it

back on its way to Los Angeles.

In one year, this giant bird will fly 230 ,000 passengers 4

million kilometers on the world's longest routes.

In its entire lifetime, the A380 Super Jumbo will fly a staggering 120

million kilometers.

The equivalent of traveling 3 ,000 times around the circumference of the Earth.

It's all thanks to ingenious inventions hidden under her hood.

Bulletproof brakes.

Extreme air conditioning.

Engine blades shaped like swords.

Eagle -like wings.

and an armored airframe.

The A380 is the biggest passenger jet to ever fly.

It's these technological secrets that have helped this aircraft evolve to rise

above all other machines.