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Is there a difference between the A380 and the MD12?


Scientia1423

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Is there an actual difference between the Airbus A380 and the Mcdonnell Douglas MD12?

Here is the MD12:

 300px-Md-12-2.png

And here is the A380:

300px-A6-EDY_A380_Emirates_31_jan_2013_j

From what I can see, the A380 has a rounder nose than the MD12.

Is there something that I've missed or is that it?

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They are quad-reactor double deck airliners. That's pretty much all they have in common.

All airliners look more or less the same from the outside, but they are very different when you take a look at their manufacturing or characteristics.

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In appearance? I guess not much. The A380 certainly wasn't the newest of designs. Even Boeing had a similar design for the Boeing NLA, apprantely.

As far as performance, it was planned to have 33 fewer passengers, fly 1,030 fewer nautical miles, cruise slower by 0.04 mach, and it would've weighed 145 fewer tons.

As an aside, that's just their high performance design. McDonnell was planning four different variants of the aircraft.

Sources:

md12-gen.jpg

 

md12-config.jpg

Edited by WestAir
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32 minutes ago, Scientia1423 said:

Is there an actual difference between the Airbus A380 and the Mcdonnell Douglas MD12?

Here is the MD12:

 300px-Md-12-2.png

And here is the A380:

300px-A6-EDY_A380_Emirates_31_jan_2013_j

From what I can see, the A380 has a rounder nose than the MD12.

Is there something that I've missed or is that it?

Other than, engines, airframe, aerodynamic design, avionics, controls, passenger capacity, range and a few more I haven't though of, no absolutely nothing :P

But seriously, as @Gaarst said above, just because they look similar doesn't actually mean they are the same in any way.

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No difference, overall.

But lots of detail difference I believe. B737 MAX and A320neo is more or less the same - except one is made from a manufacturer in the US and the other is made all over europe, and is meant to seek slightly different things - one can call the pilot "retard" :wink:

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19 hours ago, WestAir said:

In appearance? I guess not much. The A380 certainly wasn't the newest of designs. Even Boeing had a similar design for the Boeing NLA, apprantely.

As far as performance, it was planned to have 33 fewer passengers, fly 1,030 fewer nautical miles, cruise slower by 0.04 mach, and it would've weighed 145 fewer tons.

As an aside, that's just their high performance design. McDonnell was planning four different variants of the aircraft.

Sources:

md12-gen.jpg

 

md12-config.jpg

Must've been an interesting concept back in the day. Shame no one ordered for one of these...

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3 hours ago, peadar1987 said:

Convergent evolution

Yes, an two deck, 4 engine plane will look a lot like another, think you have some preferred lengths too. 

Main visual difference is the back MD-12 has an wedge end while 380 has an cone. 

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On 18/03/2017 at 4:21 PM, Steel said:

Other than, engines, airframe, aerodynamic design, avionics, controls, passenger capacity, range and a few more I haven't though of, no absolutely nothing :P

Since the MD12 was never built, the technology can be everything and is nothing at the same time. They had plans, but without a flying prototype, those are just that.

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If you want decks, check out the C-124.

C-124C_Globemaster_II.jpg

Its upper deck featured "stow and go" fold-away deck plates, so it could be used for seating up on top or folded back to allow more room on the main deck for cargo.

Douglas_C-124A_cargo_deck.jpg

It also had access tubes inside the wing so that someone could crawl in there in flight.

Edited by mikegarrison
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Before the soviets died of budget cuts and debt it had plans to make an An-225 passenger plane with 3 decks and a swimming pool, like a cruise ship but in the air. That would automatically put any plans for double decker planes into the bin had it been mass manufactured. Shame it didn't get off the drawing board.

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3 hours ago, Scientia1423 said:

Before the soviets died of budget cuts and debt it had plans to make an An-225 passenger plane with 3 decks and a swimming pool, like a cruise ship but in the air. That would automatically put any plans for double decker planes into the bin had it been mass manufactured. Shame it didn't get off the drawing board.

Was it serious? military heavy lift planes are pretty specialized in that they tend to have lots of wheels and high wings to be able to land on bad runways. Also ability to load from rear who let you air drop. 
Passenger planes tend to have center line wings and fewer wheels as they don't need air drop or bad runway capability. 

On the other hand the reason for the two decks on 747 is that they wanted front loaded cargo hold over entire length of plane, putting cocpit on top and adding space for extra crew or rest area for pilots behind made sense. 
On the later passanger versions the upper deck has grown as its nice for first class or other uses. 

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2 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

That would have to have pretty high sides, for turbulence, banking and rotating for takeoff. But they could have a ton of wild wet fun with it doing zero-g parabolic arcs 

Contrary to your thinking, the forces that happens on a turn could mean they're actually still level to the plane floor. And there are 1g roll as well...

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