Australian National Airways converted it to the civil aircraft configuration about a year before the crash.
The aircraft configuration was finalised in early 2001, and manufacturing of the first A380 wing box component started on 23 January 2002.
Other fixed-wing aircraft configurations may use different control surfaces but the basic principles remain.
But what screamed in from the ground and from Shapeshifters in aircraft configuration was bad enough.
The first design step, it involves sketching up a variety of possible aircraft configurations that meet the required design specifications.
The final product is a layout of the aircraft configuration on paper or computer screen, to be reviewed by engineers and other designers.
For complete aircraft configurations, downwash data is also included.
The aircraft configuration is based around a pusher engine with canard foreplanes in front of the wings.
The aircraft configuration proved to have higher cabin noise levels than the production Cessna 150 and offered no performance advantages over the older design.
This aircraft configuration is believed to give it a combination of high speed, long range and long endurance.