The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, landed today in Sydney, Australia on its first commercial flight, after a seven-hour journey from Singapore. The airport's crew was compelled to expand taxiway shoulders to accommodate the aircraft's enormous wingspan.

Singapore Airlines accepted delivery of the giant plane, dubbed the Superjumbo, a week ago. Passengers bought seats in a charity auction conducted online. The plane is capable of transporting up to 850 passengers, but seated only about 450 to Sydney. The superjumbo's entry into the competitive international aviation marketplace ends the Boeing 747's 40-year reign as the world's largest airliner.

The new aircraft endured two years of embarrassing delays stemming from a host of construction problems, but took off on time. Sir Richard Branson's airline, Virgin Atlantic, is a Superjumbo customer but the project's start-up woes prompted Virgin to defer its order of six aircraft until 2013.

Those problems, say analysts, are of the Franco-German manufacturer’s own making. "The various Airbus locations had their own legacy software, methods, procedures, and Airbus never succeeded in unifying all those efforts," says Hans Weber, CEO of San Diego-based aviation consultant TECOP International.

Weber, a renowned expert in aviation technology and maintenance, will discuss new aircraft and composite construction in a forthcoming webinar: “Aircraft Composites: How New Materials are Forever Changing Aviation”, scheduled for Thursday, November 15, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (EDT) and sponsored by the web site, Aviation Today. For more information or to register, click here.