The Airbus A380 is the world’s largest commercial jet equipped with four engines that give the superjumbo some impressive performance capabilities. The A380’s two engine options – the Engine Alliance GP7000 or Rolls-Royce Trent 900 – can deliver around 75,000 pounds of thrust (lbf) per engine to power the huge 72.72-meter-long widebody. The Trent 900 engine had been in the works for a proposed Boeing 747 variant but switched over to the A380 program, while Engine Alliance was a 50/50 joint venture setup for the same reason between leading enginemakers GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney.

Whereas the majority of commercial jets in service today have two engines, the A380 is of the dying quadjet breed, which – along with the Boeing 747 and Airbus A340 – are gradually disappearing from our skies. While having four engines was necessary during the development of these aircraft, newer twinjets like the 787 Dreamliner, A350 or upcoming 777X can deliver similar long-haul capacity with the efficiency of just two engines. Nonetheless, the A380 is a certified marvel of human engineering and the most powerful commercial jet ever built.

The Thrust Of Six Boeing 737s

With each engine onboard the A380 capable of achieving over 75,000 pounds of force, it can reach up to 300,000 lbf if all four engines are fully powered up. This gives the A380 a maximum thrust of almost six Boeing 737 MAX jets, which are themselves powered by two impressive CFM LEAP-1B engines.

With its high Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW), the Trent 900 or GP7200 gives the A380 the necessary power to achieve lift. The force exerted on the wings during takeoff is so great that they flex by up to 4 meters. As per Airbus, the aircraft’s « take-off thrust across the wing is the horsepower equivalent of around 2,500 family cars (at 110 hp each). »

With its immense thrust, the A380 needs around 300 meters less of runway length to take off and land compared to competing large aircraft. Both engines feature high bypass ratios to further improve the A380’s efficiency. The Trent 900 has an 8.5–8.7:1 bypass ratio, while for the GP7200 it is 8.8:1. According to Airbus, the engine’s 116-inch diameter fan blades are constantly sucking in around 1.25 tonnes of air every second while in flight.

This design feature has also helped to reduce noise emissions from the engines. Despite the A380’s mammoth size, the aircraft is one of the quietest widebodies around and has a surprisingly quiet cabin, so much so that resting pilots have reportedly found it difficult to fall asleep due to the lack of background noise.

Most A380 Operators Ordered The Trent 900

The majority of customers investing in the A380 opted for the Trent 900 engine, although the two engines were almost equal in terms of quantity ordered. According to Rolls-Royce, the Trent 900 is « the engine of choice for the Airbus A380, with two-thirds of operators selecting the engine, » but this doesn’t tell the whole story. This is because, despite early sales strongly favoring the Trent 900, the GP7200 made up a lot of ground by snagging the A380 program’s largest customer, Emirates.

The GP7200 engine was the result of a joint venture between GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney, and Emirates – traditionally a strong Rolls-Royce customer up until that point – became the main buyer, opting to standardize this engine option across most of its A380 fleet. While the Emirati carrier also took delivery of plenty of Trent 900-equipped A380s, 90 of its 123 total deliveries were equipped with the GP7200.

Other notable airlines using the GP7200 include Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Korean Air, all of which continue to operate the A380 today. In fact, due to many airlines retiring or scaling back their A380 fleets in the past several years, the GP7200 powers the majority of in-service A380s today, aided by Emirates’ decision to keep its huge fleet in service.

Massive Takeoff And Landing Weight

Typically carrying over 500 passengers onboard and packed with freight in its belly, the A380 needs all that thrust from its four engines. The plane’s certified Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW) is a massive 575,000 kg (1,268,000 lbs), which is almost 30% higher than the Boeing 747-8i, its closest competitor.

In fact, Airbus increased the A380’s MTOW twice to further increase its appeal to operators, allowing the jet to fly longer ranges and with more weight onboard. As it stands, no other commercial aircraft comes close to the A380 in this department – even the upcoming Boeing 777-9, which will be the world’s longest passenger jet, will only have approximately 60% of the A380’s MTOW.

The A380 also has the highest Maximum Landing Weight (MLW) of any commercial jet at up to 394,000 kg (868,621 lbs). As a result, it is equipped with the highest number of wheels for a passenger jet at 22, which is four more than the Boeing 747-8.

High Payload And Range

With its exceptionally high MTOW and fuel capacity, the A380 was built to carry a lot over long distances. This is true both of its passenger capacity – which is typically over 500 passengers (although it is certified to carry up to 853 people) – and of its belly cargo space.

As such, the A380 is capable of handling many of the world’s longest city pairings, such as London-Singapore or Dubai-New York, and can do so with a staggeringly high passenger capacity to boot. As explored by Simple Flying, Emirates operates the majority of the world’s longest direct A380 services, the longest being Dubai-Auckland at over 14,000 km.

The A380’s efficiency over long distances allows operators to drive down its cost per seat mile, with the superjumbo particularly effective on hub-and-spoke networks, like its position with Emirates. Compared to previous-generation large widebodies, the A380 delivered up to 33% lower fuel burn and emissions, as well as half the noise footprint. However, the A380 program did not break even for Airbus, particularly with airlines moving away from hub-and-spoke models and towards more efficient twinjet aircraft, like the A350 or Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Why The Airbus A380 Came With Two Engine Options

Aircraft are sometimes exclusively powered by a single engine, the Boeing 737 MAX and its CFM LEAP engine being one example. In other cases, planemakers can offer two or more engine options to customers, such as the Boeing 777, which came with up to three engine options. This is because different engine options offer different perks that can suit some airlines, but not others.

With the Airbus A380, the European planemaker wanted to broaden the appeal of its superjumbo and decided it would look for more than one engine option. GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney banded together to develop an engine that would appeal to North American and Middle Eastern airlines, knowing that European-based Rolls-Royce would have its own market covered.

The GP7200 was suited to hot conditions, helping Engine Alliance to secure major orders from the Middle Eastern ‘Big Three’ in Emirates, Etihad and Qatar. Meanwhile, the Trent 900 focused more on reliability and lower maintenance costs and built on the impressive track record of the Trent 800, used extensively across the global Boeing 777 fleet.

In the case of Rolls-Royce, its Trent family of engines was already widely in use onboard other aircraft – along with the 777’s Trent 800, the Trent 700 was one of three engine options on the A330, and the Trent 500 was the exclusive option for the A340-500 and -600. By opting for the Trent 900, A380 operators could benefit from commonality with their other Trent-equipped aircraft in terms of maintenance and parts.