ICE CIRCLES

A rare phenomenon usually only seen in extremely cold countries, scientists generally accept that Ice Circles are formed when surface ice gathers in the center of a body of water rather than the edges. A slow moving river current can create a slow turning eddy, which rotates, forming an ice disc. Very slowly the edges are ground down until a gap is formed between the eddy and the surrounding ice. These ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes.

SUPERCELL

Supercell is the name given to a continuously rotating updraft deep within a severe thunderstorm (a mesocyclone) and looks downright scary. They are usually isolated storms, which can last for hours, and sometimes can split in two, with one storm going to the left of the wind and one to the right. They can spout huge amounts of hail, rain and wind and are often responsible for tornados, though they can also occur without tornados. Supercells are often carriers of giant hailstones and although they can occur anywhere in the world they’re most frequent in the Great Plains of the US.

SAILING STONES

The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.

PENINTES

These amazing ice spikes, generally known as penitentes due to their resemblance to processions of white-hooded monks, can be found on mountain glaciers and vary in size dramatically: from a few centimetres to 5 metres in height. Initially, the sun’s rays cause random dimples on the surface of the snow. Once such a dimple is formed, sunlight can be reflected within the dimple, increasing the localized sublimation. As this accelerates, deep troughs are formed, leaving peaks of ice standing between them.

RED TIDES

More correctly known as an algal bloom, the so-called Red tide is a natural event in which estuarine, marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column and can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. This phenomena is caused by high levels of phytoplankton accumulating to form dense, visible clouds near the surface of the water. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers.

MAMMATUS CLOUD

Also known as mammatocumulus, meaning "bumpy clouds", they are a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud. Composed primarily of ice, Mammatus Clouds can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction, while individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system.

AURORA BOREALIS

Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful events to occur in our world, the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, has both astounded and amazed people since it was first discovered. This phenomenon ocurrs when the sun gives off high-energy charged particles (also called ions) that travel out into space at speeds of 300 to 1200 kilometres per second. A cloud of such particles is called a plasma. The stream of plasma coming from the sun is known as the solar wind. As the solar wind interacts with the edge of the earth’s magnetic field, some of the particles are trapped by it and they follow the lines of magnetic force down into the ionosphere, the section of the earth’s atmosphere that extends from about 60 to 600 kilometers above the earth’s surface. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow, producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras, northern and southern.

WORLDS BIGGEST BUS

Neoplan Jumbocruiser was an articulated double-deck coach built by Neoplan between 1975 and 1992. It is only possible to move between the two parts via the upper deck, so they have separate doors and two sets of stairs.
Jumbocruiser Ltd., based near Bristol in England, have recently completed the total rebuild of the last Neoplan Jumbocruiser ever built. The coach had rolled over in an accident in Southern France, possibly due to a design flaw in the suspension, combined with a primitive turntable system.
Jumbocruiser Ltd. used the services of Richard Coeur de Lyon (now called the Caross Center) near Mons in Belgium to completely strip down the old coach and rebuild it to a more modern design and with modified suspension. A modern digital turntable was prepared and fitted by HÜBNER in Germany. The engine, gearbox, braking system, looms, and even the dashboard were replaced and upgraded. The new dashboard is now a modernized semi-digital wrap-around unit instead of the original rust-prone flat unit. Modern front and end caps were fitted and were eventually reduced after they were found to be too wide.
By 2007, Jumbocruiser Ltd. began to market the bus as a "rock 'n' roll" star sleeper bus.

AMAIZING CASTLES AND PALACE AROUND THE WORLD

most famous of three royal palaces built for Louis II of Bavaria, sometimes referred to as Mad King Ludwig, the Neuschwanstein it’s a royal palace in the Bavarian Alps of Germany. egun in 1869 and left unfinished at Louis's death in 1886, the castle is the embodiment of 19th century romanticism. In a fantastical imitation of a medieval castle, Neuschwanstein is set with towers and spires and is spectacularly sited on a high point over the Pullat River gorge. The construction of the castle was carried out according to a well thought-out plan. The castle was equipped with all kinds of technical conveniences which were very modern, if not to say revolutionary at that time. Running water on all floors. There were toilets equipped with automatic flushing on every floor. A warm air heating system for the entire building. American tourists are already familiar with Neuschwanstein; the sleeping beauty Castle in DisneyLand, was modeled on it.

WORLD`S LARGEST PLACE {ROMANIA }

The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania is a multi-purpose building containing both chambers of the Romanian Parliament. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Palace is the world's largest civilian administrative building (The Pentagon is the largest overall), most expensive administrative building, and heaviest building.
The Palace was designed and nearly completed by the Ceauşescu regime as the seat of political and administrative power. Nicolae Ceauşescu named it the House of the Republic (Casa Republicii), but many Romanians call it the People's House (Casa Poporului).
The Palace measures 270 m by 240 m, 86 m high, and 92 m under ground. It has 1,100 rooms, 2 underground parking garages and is 12 stories tall, with four additional underground levels currently available and in use, with another four in different stages of completion.
The structure combines elements and motifs from multiple sources, in an eclectic neoclassical architectural style. The building is constructed entirely of materials of Romanian origin. Estimates of the materials used include one million cubic meters of marble from Transylvania, most from Ruşchiţa; 3,500 tonnes of crystal — 480 chandeliers, 1,409 ceiling lights and mirrors were manufactured; 700,000 tonnes of steel and bronze for monumental doors and windows, chandeliers and capitals; 900,000 m³ of wood (over 95% domestic) for parquet and wainscotting, including walnut, oak, sweet cherry, elm, sycamore maple; 200,000 m² of woollen carpets of various dimensions (machines had to be moved inside the building to weave some of the larger carpets); velvet and brocade curtains adorned with embroideries and passementeries in silver and gold.
Built on the site of a hill variously known as Spirii Hill, Uranus Hill, or Arsenal Hill, which was largely razed for this megaproject, the building anchors the west end of Unirii Boulevard and Centrul Civic. Constructing the Palace and Centrul Civic required demolishing much of Bucharest's historic district, including 19 Orthodox Christian churches, six Jewish synagogues, three Protestant churches (plus eight relocated churches), and 30,000 residences.[citation needed]
Construction began in 1983; the cornerstone was laid on 25 June 1984. The building was intended to house all four major state institutions (similar to what the Houses of Parliament operated like):
The Presidency of the Republic (Preşedinţia Republicii) - today's Presidency (Preşedinţia);
The Great National Assembly (Marea Adunare Naţionalǎ) - today's Parliament (Parlamentul);
Consiliul de Miniştri - today's The Government (Guvernul);
Supreme Court (Tribunalul Suprem) - today's The High Court of Cassation and Justice (Înalta Curte de Casaţie şi Justiţie).
This explains the building's rectangular shape.
At the time of Nicolae Ceauşescu's 1989 overthrow and execution, the building structure and design were complete. Subsequently, many of the furnishings were never installed, and the last three basement levels and a large clock tower (that would have displayed the official Romanian time) were never finished. During the regime change, the new leaders of Romania referred to the building as the House of Ceauşescu, to highlight the excessive luxury in which Ceauşescu would have lived, in stark contrast to the squalor and poverty endured by many people living in the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Parts of the building (some of the west wing, some of the east wing, parts of the second floor, basement 3 and everything below) have yet to be completed. Currently, a new underground car-park is being built inside a former stadium, currently used as a warehouse, which was covered during the construction of the palace. Tunnels linking 13 Septembrie Avenue with the basement of the building will be built.
Since 1997, the building has housed Romania's Chamber of Deputies, which had previously been housed in the Palace of the Patriarchy; the Romanian Senate joined them there in 2005, having previously been housed in the former Communist Party Central Committee building. The Palace also contains a massive array of miscellaneous conference halls, salons, etc. used for a wide variety of other purposes.
In 2002, Costa Gavras shot scenes of Amen movie in the Palace to represent the Vatican palaces.
In 2003-2004 a glass annex was built [citation needed], alongside external elevators. This was done to facilitate access to the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) opened in 2004 inside the west wing of the Palace of the Parliament, and to the Museum and Park of Totalitarianism and Socialist Realism, also opened in 2004.
The cafeteria for use of the legislators has been refurbished. Also in the building is the headquarters of the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI), an organization focused on regional cooperation among governments against cross-border crime.
There are public tours organized in a number of languages.
In 2008, the Palace hosted the 20th NATO summit.

WORLD`S LONGEST BRIDGE {CHINA }

Donghai Bridge ("East Sea Grand Bridge") was the longest cross-sea bridge in the world until Hangzhou Bay Bridge opened on 1 May 2008. It was completed on December 10, 2005. It has a total length of 32.5 kilometres (20.2 miles) and connects mainland Shanghai and the offshore Yangshan deep-water port in China. Most of the bridge is a low-level viaduct. There are also cable-stayed sections to allow for the passage of large ships, largest with span of 420 m.

WORLD`S HIGHEST STATUE {BRAZIL }

Christ the Redeemer is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.The statue stands 30 metres (98 ft) wide and 38 metres (120 ft) tall with its pedestal. It weighs 635 tonnes (700 short tons), and is located at the peak of the 700 metres (2,300 ft) Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city. It is one of the tallest of its kind in the world. The statue of Cristo de la Concordia in Cochabamba, Bolivia, is slightly taller, standing at 34.20 metres (112.2 ft) tall and 40.44 metres (132.7 ft) tall with its 6.24 metres (20.5 ft) pedestal.
It is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone.
A symbol of Christianity, the statue has become an icon of Rio and Brazil.
The idea for erecting a large statue atop Corcovado was first suggested in the mid 1850s, when Catholic priest Pedro Maria Boss requested financing from Princess Isabel to build a large religious monument. Princess Isabel did not think much of the idea and it was completely dismissed in 1889, when Brazil became a Republic, with laws mandating the separation of church and state. The second proposal for a large landmark statue on the mountain was made in 1921 by the Catholic Circle of Rio. The group organised an event called Semana do Monumento ("Monument Week") to attract donations and collect signatures to support the building of the statue. The donations came mostly from Brazilian Catholics.The designs considered for the "Statue of the Christ" included a representation of the Christian cross, a statue of Jesus with a globe in his hands, and a pedestal symbolizing the world. The statue of Christ the Redeemer with open arms was chosen.


Local engineer Heitor da Silva Costa designed the statue; it was sculpted by French sculptor Paul Landowski.A group of engineers and technicians studied Landowski's submissions and the decision was made to build the structure out of reinforced concrete (designed by Albert Caquot) instead of steel, more suitable for the cross-shaped statue. The outer layers are soapstone, chosen for its enduring qualities and ease of use.Construction took nine years, from 1922 to 1931. The monument was opened on October 12, 1931.cost of the monument was $250,000. The statue was meant to be lit by a battery of floodlights triggered remotely by shortwave radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, stationed 5,700 miles (9,200 km) away in Rome but poor weather affected the signal and it had to be lit by workers in Rio.
The statue was struck by lightning during a violent electrical storm on Sunday, February 10, 2008. The storm caused havoc in Rio, felling trees in several neighborhoods, but the statue was left unscathed because soapstone, the material forming the outer layers of the statue, is an insulator. In October 2006, on the statue's 75th anniversary, Archbishop of Rio Cardinal Eusebio Oscar Scheid consecrated a chapel (named for the patron saint of Brazil - Nossa Senhora Aparecida) under the statue. This allows Catholics to hold baptisms and weddings there.
On 7th July 2007, Christ the Redeemer was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a list compiled by the Swiss-based The New Open World Corporation. In Brazil there was a campaign Vote no Cristo (Vote for the Christ) which had the support of private companies.Additionally, leading corporate sponsors including Banco Bradesco and Rede Globo large sums of money in the effort to have the statue voted into the top seven.

WORLD`S BIGGEST BUSINESS AIRPORT {NEW YORK }

WORLD`S BIGGEST PASSENGER SHIP

Ms Freedom of the Seas is a cruise ship owned and operated by Royal Caribbea International. It is the namesake of Royal Caribbean's Freedom Class of cruise ships, and can accommodate over 4,300 passengers and 1,300 crew on fifteen passenger decks. In addition to two sister ships, Freedom of the Seas will keep the title of the largest passenger ships ever built (by gross tonnage) until construction of the Oasis Class ships in 2009, also owned by Royal Caribbean International.

The Freedom of the Seas was built at the Aker Yards drydock in Turku, Finland, which also is building the other ships of the Freedom Class. Upon its completion, it became the largest passenger ship ever built, taking that honor from Cunard's RMS Queen Mary 2. Freedom of the Seas is 2.4 metres narrower than QM2 at the waterline, 6 metres shorter, has 1.5 metres less draft, is 8.3 metres less tall and 10 mph slower. Freedom however is the larger ship in terms of gross tonnage. While its gross tonnage was estimated to range from 154,000 GT to 160,000 GT, its official rating by Det Norske Veritas, a Norwegian marine classification society, is 154,407 GT,compared with QM2's 148,528 GT. Freedom of the Seas has the highest gross tonnage of any passenger ship yet built.

The ship features three swimming areas: an interactive water park, a dedicated adult pool and the main pool. There are 2 adults only whirlpools cantilevered out from the ship's sides, the Royal Promenade sports, a coffee shop, Sorrento's Pizzeria, a Ben and Jerry's ice-cream shop, Vintage's winery, the Bull and Bear Irish pub, and many Duty-free shops. The 13th deck features a sports area with amenities such as a rock climbing wall, the FlowRider (an onboard wave generator for surfing), a miniature golf course and a full size basketball court. Other items include an ice skating rink, a casino, a Johnny Rockets, Wi-Fi capabilities throughout the ship, flat panel televisions in all staterooms, and cell phone connectivity.

The ship has 30 lifeboats. It is about 229 ft (69.80 m) longer, about 108,000 GT larger, and can accommodate 2,147 more passengers than RMS Titanic. It has 75,000 lightbulbs and 4,700 works of art, and uses 35,000 kg of ice daily. It has 1.5 million tiles in the bathrooms, shower rooms, etc. The largest suite, the Presidential Suite, is 113 square meters, accommodates 14 people and has ten flat panel TVs, a private whirlpool, a wet bar, and a Yamaha GC1 baby-grand piano. Rooms for the maiden voyage were priced from $1,900 to $22,000 for the week. It consumes approximately 28,000 pounds (12,800 kg) of fuel per hour, enough to refill a 13 gallon tank in a car at one tank a week for over six years. It is one of the few ships with 4 bow thrusters on each side with 8 bow thrusters in total.

During a typical week long cruise, the Freedom of the Seas goes through the following amount of food: 234,000 appetizers (6 appetizers per day per person); 105,000 meals and 300,680 desserts (7.5 desserts per day per person) 20,000 lbs. of beef, including 69,000 steaks (1.7 steaks per day per person) 12,000 lbs. of chicken 4,000 lbs. of seafood; 2,500 lbs. of salmon and 1,400 lbs. of lobster 65,000 lbs. of fresh vegetables and 35,000 lbs. of fresh fruits (2.5 lbs. of fruit and veg per day per person) 5,800 lbs. of cheese 28,000 fresh eggs 18,000 slices of pizza 8,000 gallons of ice cream 1,500 lbs. of coffee and 1,500 gallons of milk 11,500 cans of soda; 19,200 bottles and cans of beer and 2,900 bottles of wine

WORLD`S BIGGEST SHOPPING MALL

South China Mall in Dongguan, China is the largest mall in the world.It has leasable space for over 1,500 stores in approximately 6.5 million square feet (600,000 square metres) of total floor area.
The mall has seven zones modeled on international cities, nations and regions, including Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Venice, Egypt, the Caribbean, and California.
Since its opening in 2005, it has suffered from a severe lack of occupants. Much of the retail space remained empty in 2008, with 99.2 percent of the stores vacant. Many analyst who said that the main reason the mall had been largely unoccupied was its location in the suburbs of Dongguan, which means that it was only practical to travel there using a car. The only occupied area is near the entrance where several Western fast food chains are located.
The planned Shangri-La Hotel has not been constructed.
As of 2009, the mall had been renamed the New South China Mall.

WORLD BIGGEST AIRBUS

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. The largest passenger airliner in the world, the A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines. The aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX during much of its development phase, but the nickname Superjumbo has since become associated with it.
The A380's upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, and its width is equivalent to that of a widebody aircraft. This allows for a cabin with 50% more floor space than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400. and provides seating for 525 people in standard three-class configuration or up to 853 people in all economy class configurations. The A380 is offered in passenger and freighter versions. The A380-800, the passenger model, is the largest passenger airliner in the world, but has a shorter fuselage than the Airbus A340-600, which is Airbus's next-biggest passenger aeroplane. The A380-800F, the freighter model, is offered as one of the largest freight aircraft, with a listed payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225.The A380-800 has a design range of 15,200 km (8,200 nmi), sufficient to fly from Boston to Hong Kong for example, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude).It is the first commercial jet capable of using GTL-based fuel.
In the summer of 1988, a group of Airbus engineers, led by Jean Roeder, began working in secret on the development of a ultra-high-capacity airliner (UHCA), both to complete its own range of products and to break the dominance that Boeing had enjoyed in this market segment since the early 1970s with its 747.McDonnell Douglas unsuccessfully offered its smaller, double-deck MD-12 concept for sale. As each manufacturer looked to build a successor to the 747, they knew there was room for only one new aircraft to be profitable in the 600- to 800-seat market segment. Each knew the risk of splitting such a niche market, as had been demonstrated by the simultaneous debut of the Lockheed L-1011 and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10: Both planes met the market’s needs, but the market could profitably sustain only one model, eventually resulting in Lockheed's departure from the civil airliner business.
Roeder was given approval for further evaluations of the UHCA after a formal presentation to the President and CEO in June 1990. The project was announced at the 1990 Farnborough Air Show, with the stated goal of 15% lower operating costs than the 747-400.Airbus organized four teams of designers, one from each of its EADS partners (Aérospatiale, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, British Aerospace, EADS CASA) to propose new technologies for its future aircraft designs. The designs would be presented in 1992 and the most competitive designs would be used.
In January 1993, Boeing and several companies in the Airbus consortium started a joint feasibility study of an aircraft known as the Very Large Commercial Transport (VLCT), aiming to form a partnership to share the limited market.
In June 1994, Airbus began developing its own very large airliner, designated the A3XX. Airbus considered several designs, including an odd side-by-side combination of two fuselages from the A340, which was Airbus’s largest jet at the time.The A3XX was pitted against the VLCT study and Boeing’s own New Large Aircraft successor to the 747, which evolved into the 747X, a stretched version of the 747 with the fore body "hump" extended rearwards to accommodate more passengers. The joint VLCT effort ended in April 1995, and Boeing suspended the 747X program in January 1997. From 1997 to 2000, as the East Asian financial crisis darkened the market outlook, Airbus refined its design, targeting a 15 to 20 percent reduction in operating costs over the existing Boeing 747-400. The A3XX design converged on a double-decker layout that provided more passenger volume than a traditional single-deck design.
On 19 December 2000, the supervisory board of newly restructured Airbus voted to launch a €8.8-billion programme to build the A3XX, re-christened as the A380, with 55 orders from six launch customers. The A380 designation was a break from previous Airbus families, which had progressed sequentially from A300 to A340. It was chosen because the number 8 resembles the double-deck cross section, and is a lucky number in some Asian countries where the aircraft was being marketed.The aircraft’s final configuration was frozen in early 2001, and manufacturing of the first A380 wing box component started on 23 January 2002. The development cost of the A380 had grown to €11 billion when the first aircraft was completed.
Boeing, meanwhile, studied multiple 747-400 derivative designs before finally launching the Boeing 747-8 in November 2005 (with entry into service planned for 2010). Boeing chose to develop a variant for the -400 to 500-seat market, instead of matching the A380's capacity.
Major structural sections of the A380 are built in France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Due to their size, they are brought to the assembly hall in Toulouse in France by surface transportation, rather than by the A300-600ST Beluga aircraft used for other Airbus models. Components of the A380 are provided by suppliers from around the world; the five largest contributors, by value, are Rolls-Royce, SAFRAN, United Technologies, General Electric, and Goodrich.
The front and rear sections of the fuselage are loaded on an Airbus Roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ship, Ville de Bordeaux, in Hamburg in northern Germany, from where they are shipped to the United Kingdom. The wings, which are manufactured at Filton in Bristol and Broughton in North Wales, are transported by barge to Mostyn docks, where the ship adds them to its cargo. In Saint-Nazaire in western France, the ship trades the fuselage sections from Hamburg for larger, assembled sections, some of which include the nose. The ship unloads in Bordeaux. Afterwards, the ship picks up the belly and tail sections by Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA in Cádiz in southern Spain, and delivers them to Bordeaux. From there, the A380 parts are transported by barge to Langon, and by oversize road convoys to the assembly hall in Toulouse.New wider roads, canal systems and barges were developed to deliver the A380 parts. After assembly, the aircraft are flown to Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (XFW) to be furnished and painted. It takes 3,600 l (950 US gal) of paint to cover the 3,100 m2 (33,000 sq ft) exterior of an A380.
Airbus sized the production facilities and supply chain for a production rate of four A380s per month.
Five A380s were built for testing and demonstration purposes. The first A380, serial number MSN001 and registration F-WWOW, was unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse on 18 January 2005. Its maiden flight took place at 8:29 UTC (10:29 a.m. local time) 27 April 2005. This plane, equipped with Trent 900 engines, flew from Toulouse Blagnac International Airport with a flight crew of six headed by chief test pilot Jacques Rosay. After successfully landing three hours and 54 minutes later, Rosay said flying the A380 had been “like handling a bicycle” .
On 1 December 2005, the A380 achieved its maximum design speed of Mach 0.96 (versus normal cruising speed of Mach 0.85), in a shallow dive, completing the opening of the flight envelope.
On 10 January 2006, the A380 made its first transatlantic flight to Medellín in Colombia, to test engine performance at a high altitude airport. It arrived in North America on 6 February, landing in Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada for cold-weather testing.

A380 flying a banked turn at the ILA 2006 in Berlin, Germany
On 14 February 2006, during the destructive wing strength certification test on MSN5000, the test wing of the A380 failed at 145% of the limit load, short of the required 150% to meet the certification. Airbus announced modifications adding 30 kg to the wing to provide the required strength.
On 26 March 2006, the A380 underwent evacuation certification in Hamburg, Germany. With 8 of the 16 exits blocked, 853 passengers and 20 crew left the aircraft in 78 seconds, less than the 90 seconds required by certification standards.
Three days later, the A380 received European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to carry up to 853 passengers.
The maiden flight of the first A380 using GP7200 engines—serial number MSN009 and registration F-WWEA—took place on 25 August 2006.

Flight test engineer's station on the lower deck of A380 F-WWOW.
On 4 September 2006, the first full passenger-carrying flight test took place.The aircraft flew from Toulouse with 474 Airbus employees on board, in the first of a series of flights to test passenger facilities and comfort.
In November 2006, a further series of route proving flights took place to demonstrate the aircraft's performance for 150 flight hours under typical airline operating conditions.
Airbus obtained type certificate for the A380-841 and A380-842 model from the EASA and FAA on 12 December 2006 in a joint ceremony at the company's French headquarters. The A380-861 model obtained the type certificate 14 December 2007.
As of February 2008[update], the five A380s in the test programme had logged over 4,565 hours during 1,364 flights, including route proving and demonstration flights.
Initial production of the A380 was troubled by delays attributed to the 530 km (330 mi) of wiring in each aircraft. Airbus cited as underlying causes the complexity of the cabin wiring (100,000 wires and 40,300 connectors), its concurrent design and production, the high degree of customization for each airline, and failures of configuration management and change control.[27][28] Specifically, it would appear that German and Spanish Airbus facilities continued to use CATIA version 4, while British and French sites migrated to version 5. This caused overall configuration management problems, at least in part because wiring harnesses manufactured using aluminium rather than copper conductors necessitated special design rules including non-standard dimensions and bend radii: these were not easily transferred between versions of the software.
Airbus announced the first delay in June 2005 and notified airlines that delivery would slip by six months. This reduced the number of planned deliveries by the end of 2009 from about 120 to 90–100. On 13 June 2006, Airbus announced a second delay, with the delivery schedule undergoing an additional shift of six to seven months. Although the first delivery was still planned before the end of 2006, deliveries in 2007 would drop to only 9 aircraft, and deliveries by the end of 2009 would be cut to 70–80 aircraft. The announcement caused a 26% drop in the share price of Airbus's parent, EADS, and led to the departure of EADS CEO Noël Forgeard, Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert, and A380 programme manager Charles Champion. On 3 October 2006, upon completion of a review of the A380 program, the CEO of Airbus, Christian Streiff, announced a third delay, pushing the first delivery to October 2007, to be followed by 13 deliveries in 2008, 25 in 2009, and the full production rate of 45 aircraft per year in 2010.

The delay also increased the earnings shortfall projected by Airbus through 2010 to €4.8 billion.[
As Airbus prioritized the work on the A380-800 over the A380-800F, freighter orders were cancelled (FedEx,UPS) or converted to A380-800 (Emirates, ILFC). Airbus suspended work on the freighter version, but said it remained on offer, albeit without a service entry date.For the passenger version Airbus negotiated a revised delivery schedule and compensation with the 13 customers, all of which retained their orders with some placing subsequent orders (Emirates, Singapore Airlines Qantasir France,Qatarand Korean Air.
The first A380 with redesigned wiring harnesses achieved power-on in April 2008, with a 31⁄2 month delay.In 13 May 2008 Airbus announced reduced deliveries for the years 2008 (12) and 2009 (21}.Airbus will now deliver 18 A380s in 2009.
The first aircraft delivered (MSN003, registered 9V-SKA) was handed over to Singapore Airlines on 15 October 2007 and entered into service on 25 October 2007 with an inaugural flight between Singapore and Sydney (flight number SQ380).Passengers bought seats in a charity online auction paying between $560 and $100,380, Two months later Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choong Seng said that the A380 was performing better than both the airline and Airbus had anticipated, burning 20% less fuel per passenger than the airline's existing 747-400 fleet Emirates was the second airline to take delivery of the A380 on 28 July 2008 and started flights between Dubai and New York on 1 August 2008.Qantas followed on 19 September 2008, starting flights between Melbourne and Los Angeles on 20 October 2008. the end of 2008, 890,000 passengers had flown on 2,200 A380 flights totaling 21,000 hours.
In February 2009 the millionth A380 passenger flying with Singapore Airlines was recorded.