ANA’s A380 is the most complex aircraft paint job ever done by Airbus taking 8,000 man hours and 21 days but the giant aerospace company is happy as, finally, it is delivering the superjumbo to Japan.

Japan was always on top of the list of markets where Airbus hoped to sell its giant double-decker A380.

It wasn’t to be, though Japan had pioneered special short-range Boeing 747s with over 600 seats for domestic flights decades ago. The A380 is certified for up to 853 passengers, but to Airbus’s disappointment, Japanese carriers never warmed to the A380.

Initially, the only customer was Skymark Airlines, a low-cost carrier that went bankrupt before it could take its two ordered aircraft, which were already assembled and in the early stages of being painted. Ultimately Emirates took the two airframes.

But in January 2016, finally, a big name among Japanese airlines ordered the A380 with ANA going for three aircraft. Not the order boom from the Far East Airbus had bet on, but at least a start. “We all hope there still will be more orders from Japan,” Didier Evrard, Airbus Head of Programmes told airline ratings on Thursday in Hamburg at the Roll-Out event for the first of ANA’s A380s from the paint shop.

READ: Boeing will launch its 797 – a plane passengers will love

ANA has purchased the A380s specifically for its heavily-traveled leisure route from Tokyo to Hawaii. To come up with a suitable special livery for the aircraft ANA held a competition for the public resulting in 2,197 entries.

The winner was Chihiro Masuoka, it was his idea to create a family of “flying Honu”, the endangered Green Sea Turtles living around Hawaii, also a symbol of good fortune and prosperity.

The basic design of all aircraft is almost identical, with one huge, one large and one small turtle adorning each fuselage. The difference is the color, the first one called “Lani” (blue sky) was unveiled now, appearing in blue.

The others will be painted in emerald green called “Kai” (meaning ocean) and in orange, called “Ka La”, Hawaiian for sunset.

“This was the most difficult livery we have ever applied to an A380,” said Ralph Maurer, head of the paint center in Hamburg. “We needed 16 different colors and had to use 930 stencils to be able to paint the design onto the fuselage, normally we use about 150.”

The whole fuselage surface measures about 1,500 square meters, and while the 600 extra kilos in weight the paint job adds to the aircraft are within the normal range, the 8,000 man hours of work time it took to paint the ANA scheme within 21 days were considerably above average.

Basic liveries can be applied in just 13 days. Airbus didn’t use decals for the ANA livery, but painstakingly spray-painted layer after layer.

The first ANA A380 (serial number 262) will start to serve the Narita to Honolulu route on May 24 of next year with three weekly round-trips, being increased to ten on arrival of the second A380 in July.

The cabins will be fitted with 520 seats in four classes, the high seat count is second only to Emirates’ high density 615-seat A380. The upper deck is for premium customers only, seating eight in First Class, 56 in Business and 73 in Premium Economy.

The main deck features 383 Economy seats, of which the last six rows features “couch” seats, similar to Air New Zealand-pioneered Skycouches. The big aircraft is in line with Japan’s ambitious tourism growth targets, aiming at receiving 40 million visitors by 2020, supposedly boosted by the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo that year.

ANA wants to encourage European visitors to fly to Hawaii via Japan instead of transiting in North America, as it will soon serve seven European cities (including Vienna from February 17^th).

The total flight time via Japan (about twelve hours from Europe, about eight hours to Hawaii) is considerably longer than via the US or Canada.

Richard Branson’s space tourism dream took a major step forward Wednesday when Virgin Galactic completed what was touted as the first crewed spaceflight from US soil since the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011.

The space plane VSS Unity reached the edge of space after a 60-second rocket burn saw it achieve an altitude of 51.4 miles (82.6km), above the 50-mile boundary for space recognized by the US Government.

It then re-entered the atmosphere at Mach 2.5 using its unique feathering configuration.

The spaceship had earlier taken off attached to mothership WhiteKnightTwo from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Branson said the fourth test flight by pilots Mark “Forger” Stucky and Frederick “CJ” Sturckow had seen the company’s biggest dream and toughest challenge to date fulfilled.

“It was an indescribable feeling: joy, relief, exhilaration and anticipation for what is Yet to come,’’ the British billionaire said.

“Today, for the first time in history, a crewed spaceship, built to carry private passengers, reached space.

“ Today we completed our first revenue-generating flight and our pilots earned their Commercial Astronaut Wings.

“Today, we have shown that Virgin Galactic really can open space to change the world for good.”

READ Red Planet still beckons as NASA turns 60.

Reflections on @virgingalactic’s first space flight & the momentous achievement of a crewed spaceship, built to carry private paying passengers, reaching space for the first time ever https://t.co/hHk8ZsF8Kn pic.twitter.com/qtN8cy7kdb

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) December 14, 2018

Virgin galactic’s 14-year journey was marred by tragedy in 2014 when the VSS Enterprise broke apart, killing one pilot and injuring another.

It is also not the only project directed at space tourism with Blue Origin, founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, also looking at suborbital flights.

Branson said Virgin Galactic would push on with the rest of its test flight program, which would see a longer rocket burn that would propel VSS Unity faster.

He said this would move towards giving thousands of private astronauts “an experience which provides a new, planetary perspective to our relationship with the Earth and the cosmos”.

Watch a short video clip:

SpaceShipTwo looking back on Spaceship Earth 🌎 pic.twitter.com/ynr31mKzzf

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) December 13, 2018

Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides said the flight was compelling evidence that commercial space was set to become one of the 21^st century’s defining industries.

“Reusable vehicles built and operated by private companies are about to transform our business and personal lives in ways which are as yet hard to imagine,’’ he said.

“ New enterprises are being created which will become hugely valuable while enabling humanity to better manage some of its greatest future challenges.”

The US Federal Aviation Administration, which has to certify the space flights,  commended the company’s successful test flight and return to space.

“The FAA is committed to helping ensure commercial space transportation grows safely,’’ it said.

“We are pleased that Virgin Galactic is among the many pioneers of space flight helping write a new chapter in aerospace history.

NASA, which had four technology payloads on board the flight, also congratulated Virgin Galactic.

“With a good rocket motor burn, the mission went beyond the 50-mile altitude target,’’ it said.

The suborbital flight was below the 1000km boundary of space currently used by the World Air Sports Federation but above the 80km limit favored by a number of scientists.

Boeing will launch its new 797 a plane all passengers will love, next year at the Paris Air Show say marketing leading analysts.

The twin-aisle 240-270 seat New Mid-Market Airplane (NMA) or Boeing 797 is widely expected to be introduced at the Paris Airshow in July says Edward Ambrose of Seeking Alpha.

Another analyst who wanted to remain anonymous because of close links to Boeing said that a go-ahead was almost certain.

Read more on the Boeing 797 here at TheAirCurrent.com

Read Delta has wanted the 797 for 38 years 

And Mr. Ambrose suggests Boeing’s stock will soar on the announcement of the specifications of the plane are good enough then the stock will go up.

People close to the secretive project say the 797 “looks awesome.”

They say there is now a consensus amongst the leading buyers if the 797 of the size and layout of the aircraft.

The massive appeal of the 797 will be its passenger cross section of 2-3-2 with huge overhead luggage bins which will put an end to the economy crush.

The 797 will be a made of composite material like the 787 and it will be able to economically connect hundreds of new non-stop routes between smaller cities.

Earlier this year Boeing moved one of its top engineers, Terry Beezhold, to the program signaling that it is very serious about the aircraft.

Mr. Beezhold has had lead roles in the 787 and was project engineer on the ultra-long-range 777X, which will fly next year.

In June Boeing defined two versions – the NMA-6 (797-6) with 228-passenger, 4,500nm (8,300km) and the NMA-7 (797-7) which would seat 267 in two classes with 4,200nm range.

The 797-6 would be launched first, followed by the larger 797-7. Range appears to be closing in on 4,500 nm (8300km). This range allows it to do the vast majority of routes that Asian airlines currently fly with A330s as well as most interesting trans-Pacific routes and all trans-Atlantic routes.

By not pushing the range further, the 797 will have reduced structural weight and thus cost.

Boeing sees the market at about 5000 planes over 20 years.

It sees the 797 as a stimulus to the market creating thousands of new routes thus new business.

The company says there are 30,000 city pairs currently not linked that would be perfect for the 797.

Boeing and its legacy company, McDonnell Douglas,both touted a similarly sized aircraft – 7J7 and ATMR – as early as 1980. However, at the time aircraft seating was more spacious and passenger’s carry-on very limited and airlines couldn’t make the business case.

Fast forward to 2018 and passenger seating is far more cramped and the demand for overhead space far greater than a single aisle capacity allows.

A 797 with a 2-3-2 configuration means passengers will have more room regardless of the seat pitch and the overhead bin space will be massive.

Another plus will be that boarding and deplaning will be much faster.