History Of Airbus A380

The Airbus A380 is the world's largest passenger aircraft. Airbus studies started in 1988 and the project was announced in 1990 to challenge the dominance of the Boeing 747 in the long haul market. The designated A380 project was presented in 1994.
It was first delivered to singaporeairlines on 15 october 2007 and entered service on 25 october, production peaked to 30 per year in 2012 and 2014. However airbus concedes that its 25 billion investment for the aircraft, can it be recouped?

On 14 february 2019 after emirates reduced its last orders in favor of the A350 and the A330 neo. Airbus announced that A380 production would end by the year of 2021. The airbus a380 is a full-length double-decker aircraft. Its nickname "the superjumbo" has a typical seating capacity of 525, though it is certified for up to 853 passengers. It is powered by four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 turbofan engines providing a range of 8,000 nautical miles or 14,816 kilometers. 

 As of august 2020 Airbus has received 251 firm orders and delivered 246 aircraft. Emirates is the biggest a380 customer with 123 ordered of which 118 have been delivered. 

Antennas In Aircraft

VHF Antenna

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

Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS)

It is an aircraft collision avoidance system designed to reduce the incidence of mid-air collisions between aircrafts.

Satellite Communication Antenna

The use of satellites for this purpose complements satellite-based navigation capability. Aircraft-on-board equipment for satellite communication includes a satellite data unit, a high power amplifier and an antenna with a steerable beam.

ADF Antenna

ADF stand 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

ELT stand 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.

At 38,000 feet above the ground and traveling 500 miles per hour, how does the internet works?

Let's explore the working mechanism of internet connection on airplanes. They all need a ground-based internet server, a transmitting antenna or a satellite dish, a receiving and transmitting antenna on the plane and an on-board server and a wi-fi router. This is an air-to-ground transmission system or ATG.

Read Also: Components Used In Aircraft And Their Functions

The air-to-ground transmission system require two antennas that are installed on the belly of the aircraft in order to pick up signals from the land-based cell towers. At the tail cone of the aircraft there is the black box or flight data recorder they can provide vital information in air accident investigations. They split into two the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.
The cockpit voice recorder consists of four microphone cable connections attached with a tape recorder, one microphone leaving into the radio control panel to record any communication between the pilot and the air traffic controllers. 

Another one is recording all conversations via the intercom within the cockpit and the other one leaving to the overhead panel microphone, recording like the ambient sound of the cockpit

The second black box is the flight data recorder it is also called an accident data recorder. Flight data recorder monitor and capture at least 88 important parameters such as altitude, airspeed, heading, aircraft attitude for a minimum of 25 hours.
Modern flight data recorder made by honeywell for instance can record up to one thousand in-flight parameters and characteristics such as the flap position, the autopilot mode, weather radar readouts and much more to aid investigators.

Now this then allows to retrieve data from the flight data recorder to generate a computer animated video to reconstructing the flight before during the crash.