Private cabins, flying bars, and hundreds of seats—farewell, Airbus A380

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  In 2005 the first A380 was unveiled at the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France. [credit: Pascal Le Segretain|Getty Images ]

On Valentine’s Day, Airbus confirmed that production of the massive A380 airliner will come to an end, breaking some plane nerds’ hearts. When it was unveiled to the world in 2005, Airbus touted its efficiency over twin-engined long-haul planes, but this mighty carbon-fiber double-decker never lived up to expectations. Not all airports could accommodate its physical size, and getting the self-loading cargo on and off could take a while.

Unlike the 747, it doesn’t appear set to have a continued career carrying cargo, either. You’d expect the biggest passenger plane of the skies to make a pretty decent freighter. But there’s no folding nose variant, so you can’t take full advantage of its commodious interior to carry really big stuff. In 2021, the last A380 will depart final assembly in Toulouse, France. By then, more than 300 of these carbon composite skywhales should have been delivered, and so we expect they’ll remain a regular sight at airports they already service.

The Airbus superjumbo never really captured the public’s heart the way the 747 has, and there’s no denying the decision to put the cockpit on the lower deck gives the plane a hydrocephalic appearance. But the complex curvature of the wing is a thing of beauty, and it’s always wonderful to see something so large land so gracefully. (If you time your visit to the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy annex for the right time of day, you can watch them come in up on the observation deck.)