Let us know what is inside a commercial aircraft. We will look at all the components and how it work? For this complete explanation purpose we consider the world's largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380.

Weight Of Fully Loaded Airbus A380

Let's start with some brief introduction of the aircraft the weight of fully loaded aircraft is about twelve lakh sixty five thousand pounds (12,65,000 lb) that equal to one hundred sixty five ( 165) elephants.

Speed Of Airbus A380

The maximum speed of aircraft is about one thousand one hundred eighty five kilometer per hour (1,185 km/h) the maximum traveling range is fifteen thousand two hundred (15,200 km) kilometer.

Technical Details Of Aircraft

Let's get information about the technical details.


Power Sources In Spacecraft

Engine

Each engine generates 40.5 tons of thrust at more than about 75,000 horsepower. The total thrust produced by the aircraft is 165 tons. The fan operates nearly 3000 rpm with tip speed at 1.5 times of the speed of sound.

Auxiliary Power Unit

At the tail cone of the aircraft, a small jet engine is placed which is called APU.  The APU stands for Auxiliary Power Unit. It provides additional source of electrical power. Usually, electrical power is supplied to aircraft by the main engine generator. In the case of main engine generator failure, theAPU acts as an electrical generator. Main function of the APU is to start the main engines of the aircraft and it provides air conditioning to the cabin.

Ram Air Turbine

There is the Ram Air Turbine, it is a small wind turbine that is connected to a hydraulic pump or electrical generator. Ram air turbine are used only in an emergency. In case of the loss of both primary and auxiliary power sources, the ram air turbine will act as an electrical generator. It will power vital systems such as flight controls linked hydraulics and also flight critical instrumentation.

The commercial aircraft can be capable of producing 5 to 70 kilowatt of electricity, it depending on the generator.

Decks

The aircraft have two decks: main deck and upper deck. Usually, the cockpit are in the main deck.  can able to carry 853 passenger 538 on main deck, 315 on upper deck.

Tanks In Spacecraft

Waste Tanks

At the lower end of the aircraft there is four waste tank placed. Total capacity of the waste tank is about 2096 liters. The waste tanks are connected to the lavatories and galleys of the aircraft.

Water Tanks

There are eight water tanks, located at the center of the aircraft. Four tanks on left wing side and another four on right wing side. The total capacity of the water tank is about 2270 liters.

Hydraulic System 

The moving parts of aircraft such as doors, landing gears, flight controls etc. are heavier in size and weight, so they need more power to operate. So the hydraulic system are used to operate the heavier parts of the aircraft.

Hydraulic Reservoir Tanks

There are three hydraulic reservoir tanks: green reservoir tank, yellow  reservoir tank and blue  reservoir tank. 

Green Reservoir Tank 

The green reservoir tank used for landing gears, normal brakes, engine 1 reverser and yaw damper 1.

Read Also: Airbus A380: History, Components And More...

Yellow Reservoir Tank

The yellow reservoir tank used for nose wheel steering, alternate and parking brakes, cargo doors, engine 2 reverser and yaw damper 2.

Blue Reservoir Tank 

The blue reservoir tank used for emergency generator.

Fuel Tanks

The fuel tanks are located in the main wings and tail wings.

The main wing tanks are separated in six parts. There is two fuel feeding tanks. The tail tanks are separated into two parts. The total fuel capacity of the tank is 3,20,000 liters or 82,000 gallons, that enough to fly around 17.4 hours.

The cost of fully loaded fuel around one lakh seventy thousand dollars or 10.2 million indian rupees.

Nose Landing Gear Of Aircraft 

Let's take a look into the aircraft nose landing gear. It can controlled by the nose wheel steering in the cockpit. It can rotates 90 degree on left and 90 degree on right.

What Is Inside The Nose Of An Aircraft? 

Let us know what inside the nose of an aircraft. There is three components:

Weather Radar

A weather radar weather radar is used for identifying the weather condition ahead the aircraft.

Localizer Antenna

The localizer antenna is used for landing aircraft at zero visibility. It will give the guidance for maintaining the center line of the runway. 

Glide Slope Antenna

The glide slope antenna is used for landing the aircraft at zero visibility.

What Is At Upper Surface Of The Aircraft?

There are three type of antenna mounted at the upper surface of an aircraft: 

VHF Antenna

The VHF antenna that is communication antenna. It is capable of transmitting and receiving signals in the vhf band from 118 to 156 megahertz.

ADF Antenna

The ADF antenna, ADF stands for Automatic Direction Finder. It is an aircraft navigation product that automatically calculates the relative bearing of the aircraft to the radio station.

ELT Antenna

 The ELT antenna, ELT stands for Emergency Locator Transmitter. In the event of an aircraft accident, these devices are designed to transmit a distress signal on 121.5 and 243 megahertz frequencies.

Fuel Cost Of Airbus A380

Fuel cost for flying the aircraft approximately twenty nine thousand dollars per hours. The engine titanium fan blades suck in over 1.25 tons of air at every second.

Why most of the aircraft are painted on white in color?


The main reason is to reflect sunlight and minimize both the heating and any potential
damage from the solar radiation .

Why aircraft need two pilots?

Two pilots are required for aircraft because of safety purposes. One pilot could get sick. One pilot could make a mistake. On the flight deck, the pilots divide their responsibilities in a “Pilot Flying” and a “Pilot Not Flying”. It’s clear what the Pilot Flying does. The Pilot Not Flying is constantly monitoring the flight, assisting the Pilot Flying (by for instance calling out airspeed and altitude on final approach) and usually taking care of talking to Air Traffic Control.