LEIDEN, Netherlands. May 2. (CNN) -There's nothing quite like seeing an Airbus A380 for the first time. It's so bi-- the largest passenger plane ever built -- that its wingspan almost runs the length of a soccer field, and more than 800 people could fit in one if all seats were economy class.
The ride is exceptionally comfortable, a plus when a flight can be as long as 16 hours and take you halfway around the world. The cabin offers plenty of space and opulent amenities, making it a favorite among passengers and crew.
Airlines, however, loved it much less: Airbus was hoping to sell as many as 750, instead it's scheduled to halt production in 2021 after just over 250 will have rolled off the line in Toulouse, in the south of France. It's been in service for just 13 years.
With a list price of about US$ 450 million per aircraft, the A380 is a technological marvel packed with forward-thinking engineering, but it was conceived by taking cues from a bygone era of aviation, which ultimately clipped its wings.
The lifespan of the superjumbos already in service may well be further shortened by the coronavirus pandemic's devastating impact on the aviation industry. An aircraft that was once considered to be the future of travel is seeing its past approach ever faster.
So how did this giant of the skies come to take flight in the first place?
The A380 was created as an answer to the original jumbo jet, the Boeing 747. But for a while, Airbus and Boeing briefly pondered the unthinkable: working together to create a new superjumbo.
In 1993, they joined forces to study the potential market size for a very large plane, but eventually reached different conclusions and the joint venture never materialized.
"In the 1990s we had just a 20% share of the aircraft market and we weren't present in the large aircraft segment," says Robert Lafontan, former chief engineer of the A380 project at Airbus.
"We wanted to work with Boeing because we thought it was a good idea to not have competition in that segment. But after a while, Airbus understood that Boeing was not ready to have a successor to the 747, so in 1996 the decision was taken to work alone."
By 2000, Airbus was foreseeing demand for 1,200 jumbo jets in the following two decades -- and planned to capture about half that market. Boeing's estimate was about a third of that, which is why it decided to invest in new variants of the existing 747 rather than make an entirely new plane.
Airbus pressed on. The project, which had been known until then as A3XX, was renamed A380 and it attracted an encouraging 50 initial orders from six airlines.
"Boeing was making a lot of money with the 747 and Airbus wanted to be able to fly the same routes as the 747, such as London to Singapore, without any restrictions," says Lafontan. "The goal was to offer a plane that was 20 to 25% more economical for airlines."
The 747 had, in fact, thrived in an aviation world dominated by large hubs and a handful of carriers.
Rising passenger numbers had created congestion at large airports such as JFK in New York, Narita in Tokyo and Heathrow in London, which were already running at full capacity.
The solution, Airbus argued, was a larger plane that could get more passengers out of those airports, without increasing the number of flights.
But that tide was turning. The "hub and spoke" model was about to disappear in favor of "point to point" travel. Instead of buying larger planes to carry more passengers, airlines chose a different and more financially viable route: buying smaller planes and using them to connect secondary airports, which were never congested to start with.
"The world changed," says Graham Simons, an aviation historian and author of the book "Airbus A380: A History."
"The industry, in terms of manufacturing, changed to react to what the airlines wanted and the airlines reacted to what the industry was supplying. The net result was that the 747 and the A380 would drift down in popularity, while smaller and more fuel-efficient planes would rise." The A380 was unveiled in Toulouse in early 2005 and first flew on 27 April 2005. Chief engineer Robert Lafontan also served as a test pilot during that period.
"I first flew the plane about a month after the maiden flight, and did several tests. One of them was a 100-ton overweight landing that didn't feel like an overweight landing at all. It was so easy to fly, it didn't feel like a large aircraft, it felt similar to an A319 or a lighter aircraft," he says.
The only full-length double decker passenger aircraft ever built, the A380 is essentially two widebody planes on top of each other, although Airbus explored several configurations in the design stage.
One of them had two widebody fuselages side by side instead, using components from the A340, Airbus' existing four-engine passenger plane.
"We explored several configurations and fuselage arrangements, but in the end we followed a simple rule: to design the plane inside an 80-meter box, for airport compatibility," says Lafontan.
This limit was set in the 1990s by airport authorities, when planning for future aircraft larger than the Boeing 747.
The A380's wingspan is just inches short of it, which allows the plane to operate using existing airport structures (although in many cases airport gates required upgrades to allow for A380 boarding operations) and to stay under the limit.
However, the constrained wingspan creates more drag at high speeds, increasing fuel consumption. Airbus also had to add last-minute reinforcements -- and therefore extra weight -- to the wings after they narrowly failed a load test in 2006.
The wings hold the plane's distinctive four engines, produced by either Rolls-Royce in the UK or Engine Alliance in the United States.
They provide a combined thrust of 240,000 pounds of thrust, capable of lifting the airplane's maximum takeoff weight of 650 tonnes and achieving altitude in 15 minutes. They offer a range of nearly 15,000 kilometers, enough to fly from Dallas to Sydney non-stop.
Because engines represent a significant percentage of the aircraft's overall cost, having four of them raises the price tag.
Compared to a twin-engine aircraft, they also require twice as much maintenance, use more fuel and produce more carbon emissions.
Although the A380 engines were seemingly state of the art upon their release, they were surpassed in efficiency and technology just a few years later, when the Boeing 787 was announced.
Ultimately, the A380's wing configuration and its engines put it a disadvantage compared to the newer generation of long-haul, twin-engine aircraft.
The plane included a number of new technologies in the airframe and avionics, but special consideration was given to the cabin to reduce passenger fatigue and increase quality of life on board, via a higher level of pressurization, lower noise and relaxing ambient lighting.
These have since become standard on newer aircraft.
Lafontan says comfort was one of the criteria that informed the design of the plane from day one.
Airbus even built a mockup of the cabin and sent it around the world to survey what passengers wanted, using these insights to influence the design of the interiors.
"The thing that got me was that on the main deck you can stand up by a window seat," says Simons. "I'm 5 feet 10 inches, and if I get on a 737 or an A320 I can't stand up by the window seat, because of the overhead bin. But on the A380, the cabin walls are virtually vertical."
The cabin is also highly customizable, and lavish options are available to airlines, such as showers on the business deck. "The idea of a shower in an aircraft is just mind-blowing," Simons adds.
"And they have heated marble floors, and mood lighting that changes in intensity based on what the light levels are outside. Emirates put a bar down the back with an onyx bar top, and the protector they use on the bar top when not in use is not just a bit of cloth, but goat skin."