Everything about this aeroplane is enormous the numbers are truly mind boggling. Its overall length is 73 metres. That’s about as long as the Great Sphinx in Egypt. The giant two deck fuselage will typically have 550 seats, but has the potential to carry up to 800 passengers. The tail, at 21 meters from the ground, is as high as a seven-storey building. The 845 square-metre wing area is big enough to park 70 cars. The A380 can fly a staggering 15,000 kilometres without refuelling and in order to do that, it needs to carry 310,000 litres of fuel, making the plane’s take off weight 560 tonnes. Incredibly, though, the A380 will actually be more fuel-efficient than other, similar-sized jumbo-jets. Airbus claim that the plane will burn about 3 litres of fuel per passenger per 100 kilometres, making it as economical to run as a family car. The building of the A380 is a remarkable example of transnational cooperation. The final assembly line is in Toulouse in France, but this is only the end of an impressively complicated process.