The physics of this are insane. Then again, by my calculation the A380 displaces roughly 11 million cubic feet of air per second at the max landing weight.
The A380 is a lot more like 3 boxes (based on A380-800: http://www.airbus.com/fileadmin/media_gallery/files/tech_dat...):
1) A fueselage box with a cross section of 2067 ft^2
2) A wing box of ~1200 ft^2 (a very broad approximation because of engines, the actual wing box - the part of the plane where the wings meet the fueselage - and the curve of the wings),
3) A tail box with a cross section of 144 ft^2
So a total cross section of ~3411 ft^3 * 827 fps = ~3 million ft^3
Point being, the plane isn't moving 11 million cubic feet just to move forward, it pushes on a little more than a quarter of that directly. These wake effects happen because it's disrupting so much air outside of the zone it actually travels in, mostly below and behind it.
It's not an approximation. I'm giving a sense of scale, not saying how much volume the plane has. The point is that while 11 million cubic feet sounds like a lot, if you put it in a big box next to the plane then they would be on the same scale.
> the plane isn't moving 11 million cubic feet just to move forward, it pushes on a little more than a quarter of that directly
That's jseip's post's problem, not mine.
The weight of the airplane is a force downward, the air must match that force, either by throwing a lot of air with little velocity, or a less air, faster.