My instinct was to turn around and run away. That's how intimidating the size of Airbus's new A380 is at first sight. Unsurprisingly, one wit near me dubbed it "the great white shark of the sky".
We were among the first to fly in the plane, on Air France's inaugural 538-seat A380 flight from Johannesburg to Paris. It is the biggest civil aircraft ever to operate in Africa - and, even though I'm not much of an aviation enthusiast, it was exciting.
The A380 is, after all, a third larger in most dimensions and capacities than the latest Boeing 747-400 - its lower, main deck is equivalent to that of a Boeing 777-2000 and its upper deck to that of an Airbus A340-300. And it has a wingspan of just under 80 m.
For the sake of the environment, it's important that the A380 is intended to reduce air-traffic congestion in the long term and that it has the lowest fuel burn and emissions of any aircraft.
Is the promise of all that shiny, white metal and that rousing rotundness delivered inside? A big yes and a small no.
The yes was boosted by the fact that I flew business class, taking the kind of dramatic stairway you find on cruise liners to the upper deck. Though other airlines' A380s - Singapore leads with 10 - may have chosen flashier interior design (and configurations of up to 560 seats), Air France has gone for muted neutrals. The airline has also created light intensities adapted to the various flight phases - from cool mauve to warm orange - and so done away with the white-light, hospital-like wake-up.
The in-flight entertainment screen is enormous; the programmes excellent; there are nifty storage units under the windows; and, when it's time to nod off, the seats fall just a little too short of flat.
What makes the aircraft feel cosy is that it has been divided into cabins of about 100 seats each - not even in economy class downstairs do you survey a queasy-making sea of heads. But the promise of a bar for each cabin turned out to be hollow; they are little more than corner tables squashed between galley and loo, with nary a barstool in sight.
Despite the fact that main courses are served from the trolley, as seems to be the norm in business class nowadays, the food was as good as it gets. But you'll only get foie gras (duck) on the way back from Paris. The service of cheese, especially since this was Air France, was woeful, though: you don't get a choice, you get two too-chilly chunks.
AIR FRANCE A380
 Where: Johannesburg to Paris and back
Mood: Quiet and soothing
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To my mind, the greatest advantages of flying on the A380, apart from the prestige that comes with novelty, are that it is more spacious - pity more wasn't made of this in the design of all except the loo for the disabled - and infinitely quieter at 60% decibels lower than a 747-300.
Being positively phobic about landing, I was ecstatic at the pillow-softness of this one.
- The writer was a guest of Air France and Airbus
Ranking the Analysts 2009
