Spectators will have to gawk from afar Tuesday morning when the world's biggest passenger plane lands at Bradley International Airport. The landing of Airbus A380 No. 009 will be open only to aviation industry VIPs and other invited guests.
But airplane enthusiasts should be able to glimpse the descending double-decker from parking lots along the airport perimeter. Touchdown is scheduled for 8:10 a.m. Information on where the ``superjumbo'' jet will be parked at Bradley was not available.
Airbus, the manufacturer, is bringing a flight-test version of the A380 from Toulouse, France, to the United States for a ``demonstration'' tour that shortly precedes the aircraft's commercial debut, with Singapore Airlines.
Hartford was picked as a destination as a gesture of thanks to Pratt & Whitney and Hamilton Sundstrand, two United Technologies Corp. divisions that make components of the plane.
After spending the night at Bradley, the plane is scheduled to fly to Cincinnati and then to San Francisco.
The four-engine A380 seats between 555 and 853 passengers. Its maiden voyage to the U.S. was March 19, with near simultaneous landings at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and in Los Angeles. It also touched down in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Those planes were powered by Rolls-Royce engines. The A380 coming to Hartford will carry GP7200s made by the Engine Alliance, a Pratt-GE partnership.
Famous for its size, the A380 won infamy for a two-year delay in its production.
Contact Eric Gershon at [email protected]
