This year marks the 20th anniversary of the maiden flight of the Airbus A380, the double-decker, wide-body aircraft that remains the largest passenger plane ever built. At 10:30 am local time on April 27, 2005, the giant, four-engine aircraft lifted off from the airport in Blagnac, a suburb of Toulouse in southern France, and did a quick loop of the area, staying within about 100 miles of the tarmac. When it took its first commercial flight six months later, the A380—which typically seats more than 500 passengers and can hold a maximum of 853—was heralded as the future of long-haul and ultra-long-haul aviation.
While the A380 has flown more than
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