Los Angeles (CA) - The Airbus A380 made a quiet departure from Los Angeles International Airport last evening. Scheduled for an approximate departure time of 7:30 pm, the world's largest passenger plane left early at 6:20 pm citing that the crew completed pre-flight preparations earlier than expected.

Throughout the evening, approximately 500 spectators lined up along the south side of LAX along Imperial Ave. in hopes of seeing the A380 depart for its 12 ½ return flight back to Toulouse, France - home of Airbus headquarters. Since the revised departure time was released only two hours before the take-off, many spectators (including TGDaily.com) were unaware of the change in the schedule and arrived past 7 pm to catch a glimpse of the super jumbo-jet. Plane spotters who saw the actual departure from Imperial Hill were armed with cameras and described a quiet take-off and a Boeing 747 aircraft positioned next to the Airbus A380 before the exit.

The impressive commercial airliner boasts a maximum seating capacity of 800 passengers and a wingspan that is almost the length of an American football field. It competes with the Boeing 747-8 and 777F aircraft and offers a ten-percent increase in mileage range.

Airbus has invested over $10 billion into creating the A380, which has a price tag of $319 million. Although the manufacturer has received orders from 14 buyers, none of them are U.S. airline companies. For footage of the Airbus A380 departure, please click on the KABC link.

Hundreds continue to line up AFTER the Airbus A380 had already taken off

At 7:20 PM, a full hour after the plane had taken off, people were still arriving in their ill-fated attempt to watch the Airbus. We didn't have the heart to tell them that the plane had already left. For those spectators, it would appear that Airbus and Qantas managed to do the impossible and made the world's largest passenger jet disappear into thin air.

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Source : Tom's Hardware US