The New Bugatti: Veyron Super Sport

 

  Bugatti

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
I've encountered some pretty courageous people in my time. I once shook John Glenn's hand. I've seen Pierce Brosnan sing in public. But the bravest guy I've met lately is Pierre-Henri Raphanel, the pilote officiel for the Molsheim, France-based car maker Bugatti. It was Mr. Raphanel who, in July, strapped himself into the new Veyron 16.4 Super Sport and circuited Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien test track at an astonishing 268 mph, setting a new Guinness land-speed record for a production car.

Dan Neil describes what it's like to drive a $2.8 million car at speeds of more than 200 MPH. Dan was the first journalist to test drive the 2011 Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, which is the world's fastest production car with a top speed of 268 MPH.

"Eet was weally stress-phol," said the 49-year-old French former race champion, whose accent sounds like it came out of a perfume bottle. "I was a leetle bit scared." Quelle surprise. The biggest threat was that the huge Michelin tires might literally disintegrate due to the friction.
The slightest imperfection of machining in the gearbox's componentry, fashioned months before, might have been lying in wait, ready to explode like Apollo 13's oxygen tanks. Any sort of computer hiccup in the fuel-delivery system—pumping 10 liters per minute into the quad-turbo, 8-liter, 16-cylinder, 1,200-horsepower reactor behind the seats—could have upset the car's aero balance, sending it careering across the track like an arrow that's lost its fletching.
Crosswinds, birds, brakes and, yes, even driver error—all could have ended the interesting life of Pierre-Henri Raphanel. This was automotive marketing as death sport.
But Mr. Raphanel's greater feat of fortitude now lies ahead. It's his job to take customers on demonstration drives in the Super Sport, an extreme-performance version of the Bugatti Veyron, and sit in the passenger seat while mere civilians like myself drive this exquisite, barbaric, incomparable automobile at speeds faster than a Formula 1 car. The Super Sport can accelerate from highway speeds to more than 200 mph in the time it takes you to read this sentence out loud. Literally.
And then, just when other hypercars—Lambos, Ferraris, Paganis and even rarer isotopes—run out of steam, the Super Sport accelerates harder. This experience quickly exhausts one's supply of Old Norse oaths and curses and one is reduced to childish wows and holy cows. At full throttle in the Super Sport, the world comes at you in one ferocious, howling, soul-shaking, Newtonian sneeze.
And Mr. Raphanel must sit there, politely, impassively, encouragingly. Ladies and gentlemen, that takes balles.

Bugatti Automobiles

2011 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport

Price as tested: $2.8 million (est.)
Powertrain: Quad turbocharged and intercooled 8.0-liter, 16-cylinder engine with variable valve timing; seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual transmission; all-wheel drive with limited-slip rear differential.
Horsepower/torque: 1,200 hp at 6,400 rpm/1,106 pound-feet
at 3,000-5,000
Length/weight: 175.6 inches/106.7 inches
Curb weight: 4,043.6 pounds
0-62 mph: 2.5 seconds
0-186 mph: 14.6 seconds
Top speed: 268 mph
EPA fuel economy:
9/11 mpg, city/highway (est.)
Cargo space: < 3 cubic feet (est.)

A little back story: Bugatti, the legendary marque of European race and road cars run by Ettore and Jean Bugatti, père et fils, effectively ended the day in 1939 when Jean crashed the Le Mans-winning T 57C "Tank" on a country road outside Molsheim. According to company lore, the accident occurred when Jean tried to avoid a drunken letter-carrier on a bicycle, which gives you some idea of the esteem in which France holds the civil service.
In the late 1990s, VW's imperious leader, Ferdinand Piech, set about to recreate Bugatti, more or less out of thin air. The company restored Bugatti's lovely château and orangerie in Molsheim (in Alsace) and tore down and rebuilt the stables and garages, historically accurate down to the last brick and board.
The business plan, if you can call it that, was to construct 300 cars called the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. The 1,001-hp Veyron (around $1.6 million) was to be the fastest production car on Earth, with a top speed of 253 mph. When I drove the car in Sicily in 2005 I figured, well, that was that. The economics of beating such a record were decidedly not in any company's financial interest. It's estimated VW Group has invested about a half-billion euros in Bugatti.
But then an outfit in Washington state named Shelby Supercars—no relation to the famous race driver—managed to convince the Guinness records folks that its raw-as-tartare, twin-turbo, 1,200-plus-hp Ultimate Aero SSC was a production car meant for real consumers, and in October 2007, with a run of 257 mph, it pilfered the world record from Bugatti.
The disdain coming from Molsheim was as acrid as clutch smoke.
At the Super Sport introduction this week in Spain, company historian Julius Kruta denied that the Super Sport was built with the intention of taking back the land-speed record. The Ultimate Aero SSC "was not even on our radar." Right.
The Super Sport, said Mr. Kruta, was built in response to customers who, incredibly enough, asked for a sportier version of the Veyron—because, obviously, the Veyron was such a sissy cupcake of a car. The company plans to build 30 to 40 Super Sports and sell them for $2.5 million to $3 million. Operators are standing by.
The list of modifications to the Veyron is long and expensive. The car now has four fuel pumps, compared with the Veyron's two, feeding the larger quad turbochargers. A less restrictive (and louder) exhaust system was developed. That and some engine-management programming increases torque to a hilarious 1,500 Newton-meters (1,103 pound-feet), and peak torque is higher in the rev band. Suspension-wise, the ride height was raised slightly (to accommodate greater high-speed downforce); and the air suspension, half-shafts, links and wheels were lightened, reinforced and laced tighter. The biggest changes were aerodynamic. The Veyron's lovely, roof-mounted air scoops are replaced with so-called NACA ducts. The main grille is larger, and the entire front of the car is more ventilated to provide cooling for brakes and the front Haldex differential. A wild double diffuser has been arranged in the rear.
The aesthetic result? The hackneyed comparison would be to say the Super Sport looks like some kind of space ship, but if extraterrestrials exist, I seriously doubt they are this cool.
At the same time, the Super Sport was obliged to retain all the drivability and refined splendor of the original Veyron, except faster. "This wasn't easy," said chief engineer Wolfgang Schreiber, and I bet it wasn't. Driven at normal, human-scaled speeds, the car is positively docile. The Super Sport's ligaments are little more concussive, yes, and the engine noise more pronounced. But the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, the real heart of this car, slips between ratios as silkenly as a Lexus.
Still, I'm not sure what this car is. It's not a sports car, exactly, because despite the heroic use of carbon fiber everywhere, it weighs 4,043 pounds (110 pounds less than the Veyron). Also, it's all-wheel-drive, which means it's just about impossible to get it to rotate on the throttle, even with stability control turned off. Thanks to its enormous hydraulic rear wing, it summons up to 880 pounds of downforce, pressing the car down on its gigantic Michelin tires (14 inches wide on the rear). All of that makes the car majestically stable and locked down, with phenomenal amounts of cornering grip (1.4 g's). But it also means the car is about as flickable and tossable as an aircraft carrier.
The Super Sport is many things, but fun to drive is not among them, unless you are amused by shafts of mortality sifting through the clouds.
It's not a track car, either, because its weight and ferocious acceleration will inevitably overwhelm the brakes. Yes, the Super Sport did smash the BBC's "Top Gear" Dunsfold Aerodrome lap record, because it had to make only one lap (1:16:8 seconds, 2.2 seconds faster than a Ferrari Enzo). Even these audacious brakes (15.3-inch front rotors with eight-piston calipers) simply can't shed enough heat, corner to corner, lap to lap, to make the car effectively fast on the track.
The Super Sport isn't a grand touring car, either, since you can't get a thong and two sticks of gum in the cargo compartment under the hood. Also, because of some dispute with the supplier, the Veyron's navigation system is no more. Bugatti wants its customers to mount their TomToms on the dash, like it's a Hertz rental car.
So what is this car? Well, for one thing, it's a motivational tool, a performance piece, a tour de force from a company—VW Group—which means to overtake Toyota as the world's largest car maker.
But for me what it is is simply the fastest car I will ever drive. No more waiting. Superman is here.

Court splits Ayodhya mosque site between religions

Thu, Sep 30 08:21 PM

A court ruled on Thursday that the site of a demolished mosque in Ayodhya would be split between Hindus and Muslims, dousing immediate fears of a violent backlash in one of the country's most religiously divisive cases.

The Uttar Pradesh court also ruled Hindus will be allowed to keep a makeshift temple that was built over the demolished central mosque dome, sparking celebrations by priests who dipped in a nearby river chanting "The temple is now ours".
The 1992 demolition of the 16th century mosque in northern India by Hindu mobs triggered some of India's worst riots that killed about 2,000 people. More than 200,000 police fanned out in India on Thursday to guard against any communal violence.


(For slideshow, click http://in.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=INRTXSJZO)


If the ruling soothes tensions, it would be a boost for the ruling Congress party, a left-of-centre group with secular roots, that does not want to upset either voter bloc. Major political parties had called for calm.
"I know that often it is only a few mischief makers who create divisions in our society," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement.
"I would appeal to my countrymen to be vigilant and not let such people succeed in disrupting peace and harmony."
The verdict was handed down days before Sunday's opening of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, with the government wanting to project an image of stability and modernity to the world.
"Nobody has won. Nobody has lost," Yashwant Sinha, a leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, told local television. "Let's not look at this as a victory for anyone."
Muslims did appear the biggest losers. But Muslim organisations were measured in their response, careful not to inflame public tensions in a country where they account for only 13 percent of the 1.2 billion plus population.
There were no immediate reports of violence after the ruling.
"It was a very sensible judgment and the court has tried to balance the parties," said Anil Verma, a political analyst. "Apportioning one-third to the Muslims means they have not completely lost."
Commentators said the verdict was unlikely to spark widespread riots that hit the financial capital Mumbai and other cities in 1992. There is little electoral headway to be made in egging on religious riots in post-economic reform India.
The 2-1 majority verdict gave two-thirds of the key parts of the disputed land to Hindus -- one third each to two different Hindu groups -- and one third to Muslims.
Hindu inhabitants of Ayodhya town -- under a security lockdown for a week -- lit candles and lamps outside their homes.


MUSLIM DISAPPOINTMENT
Many Muslim organisations expressed some disappointment but called for reconciliation, resting hopes in an appeal by Muslim lawyers to the Supreme Court in New Delhi.
"The judgment can begin a process of reconciliation," Kamal Farooqi, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said.
From the capital New Delhi to Mumbai and towns of the northern Hindu "cow belt" along the holy Ganges river, many Indians waited with apprehension on the verdict, some staying at home and stocking up with food.
"Everybody is very happy with the verdict. People were scared but now everything seems to be normal. People are now opening their shops," said Ghulam Mohammad Sheik, a social worker in Mumbai.
The verdict's outcome will be a barometer of whether a rapidly globalising India with a growing middle class and an interest in investor stability has shed some of the religious extremism that often marred its post-independence years.
"I just think there is a moment in which we have to agree with ourselves as modern people to live in the modern world," British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie told NDTV broadcaster before the verdict was announced.

Bill Gates tops Forbes 400 rich list for 17th straight year

Yoshita Singh Boston, Sep 23 (PTI) Microsoft founder Bill Gates has retained his position as the richest man in the US with a net worth of USD 54 billion, topping Forbes ''400 Richest Americans List'' for the 17th year in a row. Industrialist Warren Buffett, Chief Executive Officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, has bagged the second place this year with fortunes worth USD 45 billion.

While worth USD 27 billion dollars, software company Oracle''s co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison is the third richest American. Among others in the list, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg ranks 35th with a net worth of USD 6.9 billion.

Zuckerberg is richer than Apple''s boss Steve Jobs and media mogul Oprah Winfrey. Jobs comes 42nd on the list with a net worth of USD 6.1 billion while Winfrey is on the 130th position with total valuation of USD 2.7 billion.

The list also names four Indian Americans - Syntel''s Bharat Desai (rank 252), venture capitalist Kavitark Ram Shriram (288), software mogul Romesh Wadhwani (290) and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla (308) - among the 400 richest people in the US. Commenting on Gates, who has topped Forbes 400 list for the 17th consecutive year, the publication said Gates "is not (just) the world''s richest man.

he is the most generous person on the planet.

" Till date, the "software king" has cut cheques totalling USD 28 billion. Most of his donations have passed through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which now has a USD 33 billion endowment, including contributions from his "buddy and bridge partner Warren Buffett".

Gates'' stake in the company, he co-founded, is now worth USD 16 billion. "Gates regularly sells shares in the software giant, pouring proceeds into investment outfit Cascade, which accounts for 70 per cent of his wealth.

" Other investments include trash-collector Republic Services, investment firm Gamco, AutoNation and an inflation-hedging fund, Forbes said. Gates and Buffett are coaxing America''s richest to pledge half their fortunes to charity.

"You keep making the list, I''ll keep milking it," Forbes quoted Buffett as saying. Buffett plans to give away 99 per cent of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and his children, and it all has to be spent 10 years after he''s gone, Forbes added.

Forbes said the net worth of its rich list climbed 8 per cent this year to USD 1.4 trillion compared to USD 1.27 trillion last year. Wealth rose for 217 members in the list, while 85 saw a decline.

Shameless Pakistani Officials ruin NYSE Screen Offer for Flood Victims

Shameless Pakistani Officials ruin NYSE Screen Offer for Flood Victims [ Video ]


The self-interested Pakistani diplomats displayed their own pictures in suits and expensive clothings to self-project, spoiling the golden opportunity provided by New York Stock Exchange to garner money for flood-ravaged Pakistan.

 

New York Stock Exchange offered its large screen to Pakistani officials to extend appeals to the local people so that aid money could be raised for the flood-hit country.

Failing to figure out how to capitalize on the offer, these diplomats of Pakistan Mission screened their pictures at the display, as according to sources, they failed to collect any considerable amount for the flood affectees.

Pakistanis really feel ashamed that Pakistan is now in the hands of these people who are totally incompetent, Illiterate, Corrupt people.


http://paknewsnet.com/news_details.aspx?newsid=169

PTA directs ISPs to block Facebook link

PTA directs ISPs to block Facebook link

LAHORE : The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to close an Internet link on a widely used social networking website, Facebook in connection with a so-called competition for blasphemous caricatures of Holy Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him), a private television channel reported on Tuesday. The so-called caricature competition is scheduled to be held on May 20 on a Facebook group which has been deemed unethical and disrespectful to millions of Muslims across the world. Taking notice of this incident, the PTA has directed all the ISPs to ensure the blockage of this particular link of the Facebook website. An SMS campaign is on the rise to boycott Facebook on
May 20 to protest against
this disrespectful act.
daily times monitor
 
 
Take a look at this Photo, Great work has been done! And look how a 3 Day Boycott can destroy FaceBook's Finance!!

Let's Initiate our Progress and Boycott Facebook for 3 days...
 

Wednesday, May 19, 2010
PTA directs ISPs to block Facebook link

LAHORE : The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to close an Internet link on a widely used social networking website, Facebook in connection with a so-called competition for blasphemous caricatures of Holy Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him), a private television channel reported on Tuesday. The so-called caricature competition is scheduled to be held on May 20 on a Facebook group which has been deemed unethical and disrespectful to millions of Muslims across the world. Taking notice of this incident, the PTA has directed all the ISPs to ensure the blockage of this particular link of the Facebook website. An SMS campaign is on the rise to boycott Facebook on
May 20 to protest against
this disrespectful act.
daily times monitor
 
 
Take a look at this Photo, Great work has been done! And look how a 3 Day Boycott can destroy FaceBook's Finance!!

Let's Initiate our Progress and Boycott Facebook for 3 days...
 

Tendulkar becomes first to score 200 in ODIs

 GWALIOR, India (Reuters) - India's Sachin Tendulkar dedicated his record 200 not out to the cricket-crazy people of his country after he became the first batsman to score a double century in one-day internationals on Wednesday.

Tendulkar, who opens the batting in ODIs, achieved the landmark in the second one-dayer against South Africa, his magnificent knock guiding the home team to 401-3 in 50 overs.

India won the match by 153 runs to take a winning 2-0 lead in the series after they bowled out the tourists for 248.

"I'd like to dedicate this double hundred to the people of India who have stood by me no matter what for the last 20 years," man of the match Tendulkar said at the prize-giving ceremony.

"There have been ups and downs, but they have supported me."

Tendulkar has carried the expectations of a nation of 1.2 billion people since his debut as a curly-haired 16-year-old in 1989. Now 36, he holds the record for most runs in tests (13,447) and one-day internationals (17,598) and most centuries in tests (47) and ODIs (46).

Tendulkar hit 200 off 147 balls with 25 fours and three sixes in a masterly effort that combined poise with raw power.

The former India captain reached the landmark with a single off Charl Langeveldt in the final over after moving past the previous record score of 194 jointly held by Pakistan's Saeed Anwar and Zimbabwe's Charles Coventry with a two off pacer Wayne Parnell.

"I thought about the 200 mark for the first time when I was probably 175 plus and only 32 overs had been bowled," Tendulkar said.

"I felt I had a chance but I didn't make it my aim until I got really close. Only then I thought there was an opportunity to be had."

Tendulkar's previous highest one-day individual score was 186 not out against New Zealand in Hyderabad in 1999.

"I thought I could take the singles and give (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni the strike, because he was striking the ball very well," said Tendulkar who put on 101 for the unbroken fourth wicket with the captain.

"As for the way the body is coping, it feels good that I lasted 50 overs and it has been a good test of my fitness," said Tendulkar who scored a century in each of the two tests in the drawn series against South Africa earlier this month.

"I'd like to bat for another 50 overs at some stage and ensure the fitness levels don't drop."

Anwar made 194 against India in May 1997 while Coventry hit the same total not out against Bangladesh last year.

"It was a brilliant innings and if you speak to Saeed Anwar, he would be so glad Tendulkar was the one to break his record," Anwar's opening partner Aamir Sohail told Times Now TV.

"We all know how talented and how passionate he is about the game but it's incredible that at the age of 36 he is still going on, he plays the full 50 overs, runs hard and at no point during this knock did he look like he was going to throw his wicket away."

Coventry said he was happy to be tucked behind Tendulkar.

"I was very proud to have held the record for a little while but there could be no better man in the history of the game to break through the 200 barrier," Coventry told Reuters.

"Zimbabwe versus Bangladesh; Tendulkar, India versus South Africa. Not quite in the same bracket, are they?"

Apples Launch iPad

Thu, Jan 28

The much-awaited launch of the Tablet 'iPad' has got the online world into a tizzy, discussing and debating whether it's the next game-changer or not. While the jury is still out on this one, here's a look back at events leading to Apple's latest craze... Thu, Jan 28 January 27, 2009 - Apple had sent out an invite to media for an event on Jan 27, 2010 promising a surprise. 'Come and see our latest creation,' said the invite. This slight hint was enough to send the Internet into a frenzy. Thu, Jan 28 Tech enthusiasts have christened the product iPad, iSlate or iBook even before the official name was announced. It's no wonder that Apple, Apple Tablet, iSlate, iTablet were all on the hot trends online. Thu, Jan 28 Apple is known for the secrecy but unlike previous launches of Apple products this time something passed through the net of secrecy. Terry McGraw - chief executive of US publishing company McGraw-Hill in an interview let slip how the Tablet would be based on the iPhone operating system. Thu, Jan 28 Apple has held discussions with potential entertainment and publishing partners thus raising speculations about the product vehement attempt to take on the Kindle. Apple Tablet would surely and sorely challenge Amazon's Kindle dominance, for it does what the kindle does, plus a lot more. Thu, Jan 28 The iPad is aimed at browsing, emailing, photos, video, music, ebooks and gaming. No wonder game executives too were waiting with bated breadth for the iPa Thu, Jan 28 Thus with all the hype it's no wonder that one tweet said, 'The Apple Tablet comes out today! My technolust is tingling!!!' while another read, 'Lets get this thing going already... I'm on my fourth espresso and I can barely hold my credit card steady!' Apple sure had all the eyes on the iPad. Thu, Jan 28 January 9, 2007 - This time it was Apple's iPhone that took everybody's breathe away with its launch. Months prior to its launch the net was abuzz with rumours and speculations about iPhone. And it did live up to the hype. It challenged all existing competition with its innovative functions and sleek design.

Sania Mirza's engagement called off

Sania Mirza refused to get into details but confirmed her engagement with longtime friend Mohammed Sohrab Mirza was off.

Tennis star Sania Mirza's family has reportedly called off her engagement to Mohammad Sohrab Mirza. Sania got engaged to long time friend Mohammad in Hyderabad in July 2009.

According to a media report, she confirmed it saying, "We were friends for half a decade, but found ourselves incompatible during our engagement period. I wish Sohrab the best in life".

Sania's father Imran, who coaches and manages her career, called off his daughter's engagement to Sohrab Mirza earlier this week.

Sohrab is currently studying business management in the United Kingdom. Sania, who is in Melbourne, has crashed out of Australian Open.

She will go to Kuala Lumpur on Friday for Fed Cup Asia Oceania Group 2 competition.

Airbus A380 airline Emirates

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. The largest passenger airliner in the world, the A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines. The aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX during much of its development phase, but the nickname Superjumbo has since become associated with it.

The A380’s upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, and its width is equivalent to that of a widebody aircraft. This allows for a cabin with 50% more floor space than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400, and provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in all-economy class configurations. The postponed freighter version, the A380-800F, is offered as one of the largest freight aircraft, with a payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225. The A380-800 has a design range of 15,200 km (8,200 nmi), sufficient to fly from New York to Hong Kong for example, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude).

In the summer of 1988, a group of Airbus engineers led by Jean Roeder began working in secret on the development of a ultra-high-capacity airliner (UHCA), both to complete its own range of products and to break the dominance that Boeing had enjoyed in this market segment since the early 1970s with its 747. McDonnell Douglas unsuccessfully offered its smaller, double-deck MD-12 concept for sale. Roeder was given approval for further evaluations of the UHCA after a formal presentation to the President and CEO in June 1990. The project was announced at the 1990 Farnborough Air Show, with the stated goal of 15% lower operating costs than the 747-400. Airbus organized four teams of designers, one from each of its EADS partners (Aérospatiale, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, British Aerospace, EADS CASA) to propose new technologies for its future aircraft designs. The designs would be presented in 1992 and the most competitive designs would be used

In January 1993, Boeing and several companies in the Airbus consortium started a joint feasibility study of an aircraft known as the Very Large Commercial Transport (VLCT), aiming to form a partnership to share the limited market. This study was abandoned two years later, Boeing’s interest having decreased.

In June 1994, Airbus began developing its own very large airliner, designated the A3XX. Airbus considered several designs, including an odd side-by-side combination of two fuselages from the A340, which was Airbus’s largest jet at the time. The A3XX was pitted against the VLCT study and Boeing’s own New Large Aircraft successor to the 747. From 1997 to 2000, as the East Asian financial crisis darkened the market outlook, Airbus refined its design, targeting a 15 to 20 percent reduction in operating costs over the existing Boeing 747-400. The A3XX design converged on a double-decker layout that provided more passenger volume than a traditional single-deck design

On 19 December 2000, the supervisory board of newly restructured Airbus voted to launch a €8.8-billion programme to build the A3XX, re-christened as the A380, with 50 firm orders from six launch customers. The A380 designation was a break from previous Airbus families, which had progressed sequentially from A300 to A340. It was chosen because the number 8 resembles the double-deck cross section, and is a lucky number in some Asian countries where the aircraft was being marketed. The aircraft’s configuration was finalised in early 2001, and manufacturing of the first A380 wing box component started on 23 January 2002. The development cost of the A380 had grown to €11 billion when the first aircraft was completed.

Major structural sections of the A380 are built in France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Due to their size, they are brought to the assembly hall in Toulouse in France by surface transportation, though some parts are moved by the A300-600ST Beluga aircraft used in the construction of other Airbus models. Components of the A380 are provided by suppliers from around the world; the five largest contributors, by value, are Rolls-Royce, SAFRAN, United Technologies, General Electric, and Goodrich.

The front and rear sections of the fuselage are loaded on an Airbus Roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ship, Ville de Bordeaux, in Hamburg in northern Germany, from where they are shipped to the United Kingdom. The wings, which are manufactured at Filton in Bristol and Broughton in North Wales, are transported by barge to Mostyn docks, where the ship adds them to its cargo. In Saint-Nazaire in western France, the ship trades the fuselage sections from Hamburg for larger, assembled sections, some of which include the nose. The ship unloads in Bordeaux. Afterwards, the ship picks up the belly and tail sections by Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA in Cádiz in southern Spain, and delivers them to Bordeaux. From there, the A380 parts are transported by barge to Langon, and by oversize road convoys to the assembly hall in Toulouse. Roads and canals were widened and replaced; and new barges were developed to deliver the A380 parts. After assembly, the aircraft are flown to Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (XFW) to be furnished and painted. It takes 3,600 l (950 US gal) of paint to cover the 3,100 m² (33,000 sq ft) exterior of an A380. Airbus sized the production facilities and supply chain for a production rate of four A380s per month.

Five A380s were built for testing and demonstration purposes. The first A380, serial number MSN001 and registration F-WWOW, was unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse on 18 January 2005.Its maiden flight took place at 8:29 UTC (10:29 a.m. local time) 27 April 2005. This plane, equipped with Trent 900 engines, flew from Toulouse Blagnac International Airport with a flight crew of six headed by chief test pilot Jacques Rosay. After successfully landing three hours and 54 minutes later, Rosay said flying the A380 had been “like handling a bicycle”

On 1 December 2005, the A380 achieved its maximum design speed of Mach 0.96 (versus normal cruising speed of Mach 0.85), in a shallow dive, completing the opening of the flight envelope. On 10 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, landing in Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada for cold-weather testing

On 14 February 2006, during the destructive wing strength certification test on MSN5000, the test wing of the A380 failed at 145% of the limit load, short of the required 150% to meet the certification. Airbus announced modifications adding 30 kg to the wing to provide the required strength. On 26 March 2006, the A380 underwent evacuation certification in Hamburg, 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 maiden flight of the first A380 using GP7200 engines—serial number MSN009 and registration 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

Initial production of the A380 was troubled by delays attributed to the 530 km (330 mi) of wiring in each aircraft. Airbus cited as underlying causes the complexity of the cabin wiring (100,000 wires and 40,300 connectors), its concurrent design and production, the high degree of customization for each airline, and failures of configuration management and change control. Specifically, it would appear that German and Spanish Airbus facilities continued to use CATIA version 4, while British and French sites migrated to version 5. This caused overall configuration management problems, at least in part because wiring harnesses manufactured using aluminium rather than copper conductors necessitated special design rules including non-standard dimensions and bend radii; these were not easily transferred between versions of the software

Airbus announced the first delay in June 2005 and notified airlines that deliveries would be delayed by six months. This reduced the number of planned deliveries by the end of 2009 from about 120 to 90–100. On 13 June 2006, Airbus announced a second delay, with the delivery schedule undergoing an additional shift of six to seven months. Although the first delivery was still planned before the end of 2006, deliveries in 2007 would drop to only 9 aircraft, and deliveries by the end of 2009 would be cut to 70–80 aircraft. The announcement caused a 26% drop in the share price of Airbus’s parent, EADS, and led to the departure of EADS CEO Noël Forgeard, Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert, and A380 programme manager Charles Champion. On 3 October 2006, upon completion of a review of the A380 program, the CEO of Airbus, Christian Streiff, announced a third delay, pushing the first delivery to October 2007, to be followed by 13 deliveries in 2008, 25 in 2009, and the full production rate of 45 aircraft per year in 2010. The delay also increased the earnings shortfall projected by Airbus through 2010 to €4.8 billion.

As Airbus prioritized the work on the A380-800 over the A380-800F, freighter orders were cancelled by FedEx and UPS, or converted to A380-800 by Emirates and ILFC. Airbus suspended work on the freighter version, but said it remained on offer,albeit without a service entry date. For the passenger version Airbus negotiated a revised delivery schedule and compensation with the 13 customers, all of which retained their orders with some placing subsequent orders, including Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Air France, Qatar, and Korean Air.

The first A380 with redesigned wiring harnesses achieved power-on in April 2008, with a 3½ month delay. On 13 May 2008 Airbus announced reduced deliveries for the years 2008 (12) and 2009 (21). After further manufacturing and market setbacks, Airbus now plans to deliver 14 A380s in 2009, down from the previous target of 18.

The first aircraft delivered (MSN003, registered 9V-SKA) was handed over to Singapore Airlines on 15 October 2007 and entered into service on 25 October 2007 with an inaugural flight between Singapore and Sydney (flight number SQ380). Passengers bought seats in a charity online auction paying between $560 and $100,380. Two months later, Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choong Seng said that the A380 was performing better than both the airline and Airbus had anticipated, burning 20% less fuel per passenger than the airline’s existing 747-400 fleet. Emirates was the second airline to take delivery of the A380 on 28 July 2008 and started flights between Dubai and New York on 1 August 2008. Qantas followed on 19 September 2008, starting flights between Melbourne and Los Angeles on 20 October 2008. By the end of 2008, 890,000 passengers had flown on 2,200 A380 flights totaling 21,000 hours