Airbus A380 in round-the-world test flight

The Airbus A380 started a global circumnavigation Saturday which will take in the South and North Poles on the last of a series of test flights before it applies for its air safety certificate.
The plane, which is being tested under commercial conditions, is seeking to gain its airworthiness certificate by mid-December from European and United States aviation safety authorities.
It flies from Toulouse, France, where it is assembled, to Johannesburg, Sydney and Vancouver in Canada before returning to France.
The superjumbo left the south-western city for South Africa at 9:15 pm (2015 GMT) and is expected back in Toulouse on Thursday between 12:30 pm and 1:00 pm (1130 and 1200 GMT).
"We'll be in Johannesburg on Sunday. The next day we'll be in Sydney after flying over the South Pole for a very long 16-hour flight," said Fernando Alonso, vice-president of Airbus's flight testing division.
"This is certainly not the shortest route but since we will fly not far from the pole we wanted to fly over this iconic place."
After Australia, the A380 will head to Vancouver before returning to Toulouse.
"During the flight to Toulouse, there will be pilots of the US aviation authority FAA who will witness the proper functioning of the plane," added Alonso.
On Friday, the giant plane returned from 18 days of testing which took it to Asia, with stop-offs at major airports including Singapore, home of Singapore Airlines (SIA).
This airline should take delivery of the first A380 next October but deliveries are around two years behind schedule because of electrical cabling problems.
"During these three flights, the plane performed remarkably well.
"There were no major breakdowns, only some faults which we were already aware of.
"Each flight and each landing were on time," Alonso told AFP.
"Overall, at the moment, you could say 'move along, there's nothing to see,'" he added, indicating that, during tests, the plane was set to notch up 150 hours' flying time.
"We are a month ahead of the programme schedule," Gilles Robert, former director of testing at Airbus, added. The plane's first flight took place in April last year.
The Asian leg took the world's biggest plane, which can carry up to 840 passengers, to Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo as well as the Chinese cities of Guangzhou, Peking and Shanghai.
Those on board included pilots from the European regulatory authorities.