At 10:29 in the morning of April 27, 2005, the four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines of F-WWOW hauled 421 tonnes of aluminum, composites, and European ambition into the clear sky above Toulouse. The Airbus A380, co-captained by test pilots Claude Lelaie and Jacques Rosay, flew for nearly four hours over the Pyrenees and the Bay of Biscay before returning to a crowd of thirty thousand spectators. It was the largest passenger aircraft ever built: 240 feet long, 80 feet tall, a wingspan of 260 feet, each wing big enough to hold seventy cars. The full-length double-deck configuration promised to end the 747's thirty-seven-year reign as the world's most spacious airliner. But weight problems, wiring complications, and billions in cost overruns pushed the program into the red. Singapore Airlines finally received the first delivery on October 15, 2007, and on October 25, Flight SQ380 lifted from Changi with 455 passengers bound for Sydney. Seats had been auctioned for charity; one bidder paid $100,380 for the privilege of the first ride. The A380 was the most fuel-efficient and quietest jetliner of its generation, yet the market had shifted toward smaller, long-range twins. Only 251 were built before production ended in 2021. The superjumbo had touched the limits of scale, and found them narrower than its wings.