The Airbus 380 is the world's largest passenger airliner and it has been flying commercially for less than five years. No American airline owns one, so the only time an A380 is in the U.S. is when a foreign company uses this behemoth on a routing between their country and ours. Six airports in the United States have runways that can handle the jumbo jet, and I had heard that Lufthansa German Airlines planned to start using one of their A380s daily between Frankfort and Houston. I had no idea when this service was scheduled to begin until Jim informed me on Wednesday morning that Lufthansa's inaugural A380 flight was going to arrive at IAH that very afternoon and that the airport was hosting an "A380 Houston Party." Luckily, I was in Texas, and I knew that I just had to zip over to the airport to watch the plane land there for the very first time. Jacob agreed to accompany me and we got to the staging area about 40 minutes before the flight was due in. There were thousands of other airplane geeks waiting on the grassy field just north of runway 26 right, which totally surprised Jake, who was sure that there would only be about five or six people there. Naturally, the weather was hot and humid, and we stood around sweating under the blazing Houston sun while listening to a local band play German music. Eventually, the Airbus 380 came into view, the crowd cheered wildly, the wheels touched down, then the aircraft taxied slowly to its gate. It was an impressive sight for me to see, though not quite as exciting for Jacob. I think I may head back over to IAH sometime soon to watch the giant plane land and take off again.
The huge jet has an upper deck that spans the entire length of the aircraft.
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