Remarks: Standing under the belly of this 'whale' makes you wonder what Jonah must have felt like and, whether Leviathan actually had legs or not, it's a 'good Job' that this one has 5 of them. Manufactured by Goodrich, the 5 landing gear posts house 22 tyres in total with the 20 main gear tyres shown here having a diameter of 1.4m (4.6') and a cross section of 0.53m (1.7'). When standing fully loaded on the ground at a 650 tonne MTOW, these relatively small tyres will therefore displace about 30 tonnes of weight each while the mind can only wonder at the sort of forces which the hydraulic posts counteract when this baby touches down (see landing at Air Show ... Click Here).
Remarks: Dwarfed under the wing showing one of the Engine Alliance GP7000 powerplants and emphasising the substantial fairings needed for the flaps. The upper deck emergency chute housing can be seen just below the door and, with an external fuselage standing at 8.41m (27.6'), sliding down one of these is equivalent to exiting a building from the second storey (see under belly view ... Click Here).
Remarks: I waited months, slept in a car in the airport parking lot in the winter, and walked
and ran all day to see the largest airliner in the world, and exclusively by
first time in Switzerland, unfortunately the fog disrupted, but only in having already seen me so
happy. Above all I would like to thank my uncle Roger Indergand for taking part in this
adventure with me and by doing so the best spotting day of my life!, and make this dream come true for me! A380 the BEAST!
