Missy In Real Life: Coming soon to an airport near you.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Coming soon to an airport near you.

On April 7th the Airbus A380 was moved from the Airbus super secret assembly hanger to the Airbus flight test facility at Toulouse-Blagnac airport.

That was enough to cause total pandemonium; yesterday however, the A380 was taken for a walk up down the test flight runway. That's all, just up and down the runway. This event filled the makeshift parking lots that Airbus created to keep people from stopping on the highway and still had people parking on the sides of the highway and eventually on the highway itself.

The maiden flight is scheduled for Monday. Sometime Monday. If the weather is favorable. This means that people will be parked on every square inch of tarmac, grass and sidewalk near and around the airport that isn't guarded by railing. People will even fill the airport lots and pay for parking just to see this event. I myself may attempt to get to the centre commercial in Blagnac to park and watch the skies. Paul, my inside source at Airbus, did not however mention when the next flight date might be if, and trust me with April weather being what it's been this is highly likely, weather does not permit on Monday. I will have to try to contact him for that info so I'm not 'stalking' the A380 daily waiting for takeoff.

Well anyway, if I manage to get anywhere near the airport on Monday and if the 380 flies and if I remember to bring my camera with me (photos above are stock from the Airbus website), I'll post photos of the historic event

In other non-flight related news, spring is creeping toward summer here, but except for the flowering and leafing of trees you wouldn't really know it. The weather has failed to warm up much beyond the low 60's except for a day or two here and there. It's supposed to be in the 70's by now. On the bright side, the continued cold has prolonged the life of our tulips and they have been in bloom for weeks now. Here are some views from my bedroom window.