It was April 27, 2005, already fifteen years ago!

The first A380 made its first flight, applauded by thousands of people gathered near Toulouse-Blagnac airport and followed by televisions around the world. Good weather accompanied the success of this event.

The flight lasted 3:54 minutes after taking off from runway 32L at 10:29 am (1 minute ahead of schedule) and landing at 2:23 pm.

Six men, in orange suits, aboard the A380, are in constant contact with the ground engineering team: the two Airbus test pilots, Claude Lelaie and Jacques Rosay, who respectively took off and landed the aircraft. Three flight test engineers (Fernando Alonso, Manfred Birnfeld, Jacky Joye) and the flight test engineer (Gérard Desbois) complete the crew. The aircraft is full of sensors and ballasted with water ballast to simulate a usual load.

"The history of aviation was made this morning when the first A380, the largest commercial aircraft in the world, successfully took off on its maiden flight" rejoiced Airbus.

The last deliveries of the A380 will take place within a year. This will bring the total of firm orders to 274, 14 years after the first entry into service at Singapore Airlines. The last convoy carrying elements of an Airbus A380 arrived in Toulouse on February 26 for its final assembly, where the last deliveries of superjumbos are expected in 2021.

One of the first units has already been dismantled at Tarbes–Lourdes–Pyrénées Airport by Tarmac Aerosave, at the end of 2019!