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Comment by W-Stool | Hacker News Reader

First time I saw one of those in person (SFO) I could not believe a plane that large could fly and be reliably controlled in adverse situations. Maybe it wasn't a huge commercial success but it reminded me that sometimes huge and insanely complicated projects can still be successfully executed. We could use a reminder of that these days from time to time. RIP A380.

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I remember standing outside a few years ago and glancing up and seeing a plane which, even ~40,000ft up, appeared huge. I pulled out my phone and looked it up on an aircraft tracking app and it was an A380.

Those red bellied Emirates A380s stand out so well against the sky.

When I moved to the US 5 years ago, I flew on an A380. It was my first flight in almost 20 years. I had remembered that as a kid I used to have awful flight sickness, but the A380 flight was a pleasure.

I had the good luck to see the Mriya take off. It's... uh... something else. Six engines and more wheels you can count. Indeed, it looks utter impossible for something that big to fly.

> I could not believe a plane that large could fly and be reliably controlled in adverse situations.

I suppose somebody outside the aviation industry could think that, but in general, the larger the airplane, the smoother the ride and control are. In fact, airliners have specific certification requirements to "be smooth" for IFR handling:

FAA SFARS 14 CFR § 25.171 General (Stability)

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/25.171

There's other FARS that list more specific requirements for airliners.

The only transport category class that I've seen which looks surprising in flight is the C-5 on takeoff. It's huge (about the size of a 747) and climbs out so slowly that it looks like it will fall out of the sky:

C-5 Takeoff at Abbotsford

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCC6ZbZvG8I

The US lost a cargo 747 in 2013 in the Middle East due to the load shifting - armored vehicles rolled backwards, moving the CG aft and damaging hydraulic lines. Notice how slow (and vertical) it gets:

US Military 747 Takeoff and Crash at Bagram (caution: actual crash footage with flames)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M01RmcKsm2k

> moving the CG aft and damaging hydraulic lines

It did worse than that. It snapped the jackscrew off that changes the angle of attack of the stabilizer, which is a certain crash.

Why are the C-5's engines so small?

They're not actually that small compared to other contemporary engines. Here's one being tested alongside the J57:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boeing_JB-52E_(SN_57-0119...

The C-5 fuselage is quite big, so they look smaller than they are.

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