Own a piece of the first Airbus A380 to be retired - A380 aviation tag.jpg ...

more at https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/a...tag/index.html

They're sized around 1.5 by 3.5 inches (35 by 88 millimeters) and retail at
€27.95 ($30.19).

(CNN) — Hearts broke around the world on Valentine's Day 2019, when Airbus
announced that it was pulling the plug on its superjumbo A380 airplane.

However, A380 fans can now get their hands on their very own piece of the first
A380 to enter scheduled service, a Singapore Airlines craft which was retired in
2017.

German company Aviationtag, which specializes in upcycling scrapped airplanes,
has created a limited run of one-of-a-kind tags made from the fuselage of Airbus
A380 97-SKA, which is also notable for being the first A380 to hit the
scrapheap.

Each tag, which can be used a keychain or simply as a collector's item, is made
from either the hull, wings or tail unit of the double-decker behemoth -- a
little slice of aviation history.

The historic craft, with the manufacturer serial number MSN 003, entered service
with Singapore Airlines on the Singapore-Sydney route on October 25, 2007, as
flight number SQ380.

The Airbus A380 was developed at a cost of $25 billion, but the MSN 003 flew
just 10 years with Singapore Airlines before being retired, transferred to
Tarbes in France and recycled in 2019.

It was not only the first A380 to enter scheduled service, but the first of the
wide-body liners to be scrapped.

"It's a painful decision," Airbus CEO Tom Enders said in 2019, announcing the
decision to discontinue the airplane. "We've invested a lot of effort, a lot of
resources and a lot of sweat into this aircraft."

With a capacity of up to 853 passengers, the A380 was the largest mass-produced
civil airliner in history, but Airbus overestimated airlines' appetite for the
superjumbo.

By the time of the 2019 announcement, it had delivered just 234 of the craft --
less than a quarter of the 1,200 it had predicted when the double-decker was
introduced.

Airlines' interest had shifted to lighter, more fuel-efficient craft and that
gleaming bright jumbo was becoming more of a white elephant.

Aviationtag has been upcycling aviation materials since 2006, and has turned
everything from commercial craft like the Boeing 747 to military planes such as
the DC-3 "candy bomber" into collector's items.

However, the company's vice president, Tobias Richter, tells CNN Travel that
working on this A380 was particularly special.

"Besides the fact that this is one of the largest and heaviest aircrafts that
has ever flown, it was up in the sky for only 10 years," he says. "For us the
story behind the actual aircraft is always very important and if planes could
talk, the MSN 3 would have lots to tell."

Tarbes-based Tarmac Aerosave is the company responsible for taking apart the MSN
003 and announced the completion of its first A380 dismantling project in
November 2019.

For Aviationtag, getting its hands on this A380 was a big deal.

"Often times people think it is so easy to just go out and buy aircraft
material, but it is not," explains Richter. "Companies at aircraft boneyards and
teardown facilities get hundreds of calls and mails every day from people who
want to buy some material from them.

"So you need to have a good reputation in the industry and also be well
connected to actually get a chance to talk to the right people."

All the tags come with serial numbers and registration details so fans can look
up the craft's history.



*

Miloch wrote in
:

more at
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/a...tag/index.html

They're sized around 1.5 by 3.5 inches (35 by 88 millimeters) and
retail at €27.95 ($30.19).

(CNN) — Hearts broke around the world on Valentine's Day 2019, when
Airbus announced that it was pulling the plug on its superjumbo A380
airplane.

However, A380 fans can now get their hands on their very own piece of
the first A380 to enter scheduled service, a Singapore Airlines craft
which was retired in 2017.

German company Aviationtag, which specializes in upcycling scrapped
airplanes, has created a limited run of one-of-a-kind tags made from
the fuselage of Airbus A380 97-SKA, which is also notable for being
the first A380 to hit the scrapheap.

Each tag, which can be used a keychain or simply as a collector's
item, is made from either the hull, wings or tail unit of the
double-decker behemoth -- a little slice of aviation history.

The historic craft, with the manufacturer serial number MSN 003,
entered service with Singapore Airlines on the Singapore-Sydney route
on October 25, 2007, as flight number SQ380.

The Airbus A380 was developed at a cost of $25 billion, but the MSN
003 flew just 10 years with Singapore Airlines before being retired,
transferred to Tarbes in France and recycled in 2019.

It was not only the first A380 to enter scheduled service, but the
first of the wide-body liners to be scrapped.

"It's a painful decision," Airbus CEO Tom Enders said in 2019,
announcing the decision to discontinue the airplane. "We've invested a
lot of effort, a lot of resources and a lot of sweat into this
aircraft."

With a capacity of up to 853 passengers, the A380 was the largest
mass-produced civil airliner in history, but Airbus overestimated
airlines' appetite for the superjumbo.


It was a logical decision, given the growth
of air traffic and the shortage of gates at most
airports. If one plane can replace three it seems
like the airlines would snap it up.



By the time of the 2019 announcement, it had delivered just 234 of the
craft -- less than a quarter of the 1,200 it had predicted when the
double-decker was introduced.

Airlines' interest had shifted to lighter, more fuel-efficient craft
and that gleaming bright jumbo was becoming more of a white elephant.


Some of us remember when the SST was going
to be the Next Big Thing for airlines.



Aviationtag has been upcycling aviation materials since 2006, and has
turned everything from commercial craft like the Boeing 747 to
military planes such as the DC-3 "candy bomber" into collector's
items.


"Candy bomber", as in the Berlin airlift"?