Overhead

Airbus

Airbus A380

Singapore Airlines Airbus A380-841 climbing away from Sydney Airport in left side profile against a clear blue sky, showing its full double-deck body and four underwing engines.
© Windmemories · CC BY-SA 4.0

From below

The view you'll actually get from high overhead.

Emirates Airbus A380-861 banking directly overhead after takeoff, showing the underside outline with all four engines, the full wingspan, and the double-deck body cross-section against a clear sky.
© Flygklubben · CC BY-SA 4.0

Field marks

  1. The only airliner with a full double deck running nearly the entire body length — unmistakable even at a distance
  2. Four huge underwing engines plus a flat end-fin at the wingtip rather than an upturned blade, unlike every other four-engine or twin-engine jet in this fleet
  3. Mixed landing gear: four-wheel clusters under each wing plus two six-wheel clusters under the belly, for 20 main wheels total — no other jet mixes wheel-cluster sizes like this
  4. Simply the largest airliner most spotters will ever see — wingspan and tail height dwarf even a 747-8

Specs

Length
72.72 m
Wingspan
79.75 m
Engines
Rolls-Royce Trent 900 / Engine Alliance GP7200
Typical seats
525–615

Size and shape, to scale

Photos can't hold a consistent scale from shot to shot — these silhouettes are all drawn at the same 10 px = 1 m scale, so the proportions here are trustworthy even though the photos above aren't.

Variant notes

  • Production ended in 2021 after 251 built — no freighter variant ever entered service
  • A larger "A380plus" wingtip fence upgrade was proposed in 2017 but never launched, so every A380 flying has the original fence-style tip
  • Seating varies hugely by operator (Emirates configures far denser than Singapore Airlines or Qantas), but the airframe outline never changes

Commonly confused with