Munich airport in Germany has come up with an ingenious scheme for fitting the world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, into its existing aircraft hangar.
The German airport had recently unveiled its new hangar doors, which come complete with a custom-made hole so that the 238ft-long aircraft’s tail can stick out while the doors are closed
Prior to the new doors, which weigh 20 tons and took a month to construct, the hangar had to be left open to the elements when maintenance work was being done on the Airbus jets, meaning mechanics and other workers would be subject to freezing conditions.
Now, the rail-mounted gates fit around the tail perfectly; an airport spokesperson said the hole fits snugly around the plane, blocking chilly draughts.
The gap leaves 6.6ft of the tail outside, but the spokesperson said this should not cause any damage to the planes – they are built to withstand low temperatures of up to -60°C.
A video released by the airport shows the 72ft-high and 36ft-wide doors in action. Captioned “This butt is our definition of perfect,” the clip uploaded to Munich’s Facebook page has been watched more than 32,000 times at the time of writing.
