A Day That Shook The World: Largest passenger aircraft in history takes off

Wednesday 27 April 2011 00:00 BST

(AFP/Getty)

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On 27 April 2005, the Airbus A380, biggest and heaviest passenger aircraft ever built took its maiden flight from Toulouse Airport.

The A380 is huge: it weighs 440t, is 73m long and has a wingspan of 80m - and it has twice the floorspace and capacity of an ordinary jumbo jet.

However, to accomodate the craft, runways may need to be redesigned, and critics have called a beast of this size inflexible.

Watch original British Pathe footage from the A380's maiden voyage above.

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A Day That Shook The World: Largest passenger aircraft in history takes off

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