World's Largest Passenger Aircraft Makes First Landing in US(1/2)

In a weather condition airline pilots call "severe clear," you could see it coming almost ten miles away. Under heavy security and before hundreds of cameras, the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft, made a relatively quiet landing on the runway at JFK International Airport in New York.

The man behind the controls of Lufthansa Flight 8940, Chief Pilot Juergen Raps, compares piloting the aircraft to driving an Italian sports car. "If you imagine a plane of this size and this weight, you imagine it would move like a bus or like a truck. But as I said, if you compare it, it would handle like a Ferrari - it's very responsive at the controls, and it reacts very fast."

The Airbus's arrival at JFK, complete with passengers and a full crew, marks the first visit by the new so-called megaliner to U.S. soil. Port Authority Executive Director Anthony Shorris says the historic occasion also marks a new beginning in air travel to and from New York. The city hopes to reap an economic benefit after investing tens of millions of dollars in upgrading the airport to accommodate the new aircraft.