WI/PC Airbus A380 Military Transport

WILDGEESE

Gone Fishin'
As you may or may not know, the Boeing 747 came about when Lockheed won the USAF C-X contract which led to the C-5 Galaxy.

Boeing then redesigned their loosing proposal and developed it into the aircraft we now know as the 747.

Thinking about this . . .

How plausible (if the finance's where made available) to design a military version of the A380 "Super Jumbo"?

I'm expecting it to have the wings moved to a shoulder position and the bogies lowered in height to allow easier access to the cargo hold, with front and rear doors for unloading.

Would this work?

How economical would this aircraft be compared to the C-5?

What nation would possibly be in the market for such an aircraft?

Cheers filers
 

Delta Force

Banned
The Airbus A380F would have 7% more payload capacity than the Boeing 747-8F. It would have more payload than the Antonov An-124 military transport aircraft, and would only be behind the Antonov An-225. The main issue is that the A380 already has issues integrating with ground infrastructure at proper airports, and also poses air traffic control issues (information here). I'm not sure how well the A380 would do as a military aircraft seeing as it can only fly into a limited number of commercial airports as it is.

Also, Airbus is prioritizing production of the passenger aircraft variant at this time. However, since Emirates is a huge customer for the A380 and has purchased most of the capacity and even said it would purchase one hundred with more efficient engines, it might be possible for some military orders to be worked in if Airbus, Emirates, and a military customer arranged the schedule in a suitable way. Perhaps Emirates could send older aircraft to be converted to military aircraft as it receives new versions? That would make other airlines happy too, because the A380 is such a niche product that Emirates could flood the market with too many used aircraft if it orders new ones with improved engines.
 
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