I flew on the 'Whale of the skies', the Airbus A380 on my way back from Frankfurt to Delhi and I have to grudgingly admit, that it is a better, quieter, more comfortable aircraft than the 747-8.
You cannot hear the engines on the upper decks of both of these aircraft, but on the 747 - there is a constant whooshing sound of the air slipping past the fuselage. At 900 kilometers per hour, that is a lot of air and it makes for quite a bit of noise. This white noise is possibly one of the reasons you cannot hear the engines. The A380, on the other hand is serenely, even spookily quiet. The sense of space is also hard to miss. On the 747, the upper deck is a narrow, single aisle affair, but the 380 is a true double-decker wide-body with twin aisles on both decks.
The washrooms too on the 380 are spacious, unlike the 'watch-what-you-do-with-your-arms-when-you-shut-the-door' contraptions more common at 35000 feet. If one aspired to join the mile-high club, the A380 is definitely the place to try.
I didn't think I would ever catch myself saying this, but I would much rather ride the whale than ride the queen.
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