European planemaker Airbus unveiled its A380 superjumbo, hailed as a major European feat that will reshape aviation, at a spectacular party recently.

French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero watched as Airbus offered a first glimpse of the twin-deck jetliner decked in new colours.
The largest civil airliner ever built hatched from the wings of a butterfly-like object in a theatrical and ethereal ceremony at its final assembly plant in Toulouse, southwestern France.
‘Under the name of Airbus, Europe has written one of the most beautiful pages of its history,’ Airbus chief Noel Forgeard told 5,000 guests invited for the unveiling in a massive hangar.
The mammoth A380 has room for 70 cars to park on its wings.
Airlines have committed almost $40 billion to buying the 555-seat double-decker superjumbo, expecting it to lower operating costs and boost profits flattened by high oil prices and a slowdown in global aviation and tourism since 2001.
Forgeard predicted Airbus would sell 700 to 750 of the planes, which cost $260 million to buy and boast a 15 per cent gain in costs per seat-mile compared to the Boeing 747-400.
It already has 149 orders or commitments from 14 airlines for the aircraft, which is due to take its first test flight in early April. It is due to enter service in 2006.
The plane is costing Airbus and its shareholders EADS, the European aerospace group, and BAE Systems some 12 billion euros to develop including 1.45 billion euros of cost overruns linked in part to efforts to keep its weight down.
Some airports will also have to spend millions of dollars to accommodate the plane and its massive wingspan over taxiways.
Leahy, the suave American sales chief who has outsold arch rival Boeing in the past two years to seize leadership of the commercial jet industry, says the A380 will make the 747 obsolete just as the legendary jumbo jet had pushed older models to the graveyard when it took to the skies 35 years ago.
Boeing has already dismissed that suggestion, saying the A380 will lag sales of the original jumbo jet for years.
Airlines will be able to configure the plane according to the service they want to sell, with some opting for an Upstairs-Downstairs feel with posh frills on the upper deck.
Others will be able to pack more than 800 passengers in an all-economy layout on both decks for cheap charter flights.
Virgin Atlantic is taking no chances — it will offer a beauty therapist area, a gym, a casino and double beds.