The world’s biggest commercial jetliner, Airlines Airbus A380, has landed on Thursday in Sydney after a seven-and-a-half hour flight from Singapore. Unfortunately for the passengers, who actually won a lottery to be on board the amazing A380, the weather in the Australian capital was uncharacteristically cloudy.

The airliner’s captain, Robert Ting, brought his A380 in over Sydney Harbor to give the passengers a view of the bridge and the Opera House, but all that they could see were clouds. Their compensation for not seeing Sidney from above was the fact that they are now a part of history as the Singapore Airlines is the first carrier to take delivery of an aircraft with a wingspan almost wider than a football pitch.

The A320, manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, an EADS subsidiary, has outshined the admired Boeing 747 as the world's largest commercial aircraft. The record stood for 37 years.

Although the double-deck, four-engine airliner can carry 853 people in full economy mode, for its maiden commercial flight it was configured to hold 399 in economy, 60 in business and 12 in what were labeled as "beyond-first-class suites."

During much of its development phase, the jet was known as the Airbus A3XX and in the mean time it also got the nickname Superjumbo.

The A380 has also freighter versions. The A380-800F, the planned freighter model, is designed as one of the largest freight aircraft, with a listed payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225.

The A380-800 has a range of about 15,200 kilometres so it could fly from New York to Hong Kong without stopping to refuel, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruise altitude).