Heads of government from France, Germany, Spain and the UK will gather in a hangar near Toulouse, France, on 18 January to inspect the first complete airframe of the Airbus A380 double-decker “superjumbo” jet. Patents recently filed by Airbus give some clues as to what features might be built into the gargantuan 555 to 800-seat plane, due to go into service in 2006.
World patent application WO 2004/018290 shows the layout of the main passenger cabins, with reclining seats arranged in groups of four on either side of the aisles. The four seats in each group are back-to-back, so half…
