THE first thought that strikes you is, just how does this leave the ground, followed swiftly by how amazingly quiet this beast of an aeroplane is.

Airbus’s double-decker A380 is the biggest passenger plane in the world, borne by massive wings made at the company’s Broughton plant, near Chester.

And judging by feedback from top European carrier Lufthansa, the factory could soon be celebrating another ten A380 orders from the German group to add to the 15 already in the pipeline.

Executives and pilots alike enthuse about the A380, with a pledge to confirm further orders based on the performance of their first delivery in May.

Lufthansa marked the arrival of its second A380 with an inaugural two- hour flight from Munich over Germany and Austria as the pilot put the craft through its paces.

All 15 of Lufthansa’s 526-seat A380s – about 200 more passengers than a Boeing 747 – will operate out of Frankfurt.

“Feeder airports”, like its Manchester base which includes a sizeable business clientele from Merseyside, will deliver passengers for long-haul routes earmarked for the new fleet.

However, this second Lufthansa craft made its inaugural flight out of the Bavarian city after a ceremony naming her “Munich”.

Lifting off in driving rain, she twisted and turned over rocky and wooded terrain, even performing a fly-by of Salzburg Airport at barely 100 feet above the ground before pulling effortlessly up to her 13,000ft cruising height at 300mph with barely as much noise as an air conditioning system.

Also purring are Lufthansa’s management, who say the A380 is all that it has been billed.

The first craft, delivered in May, now serves the Frankfurt to Tokyo route and has run perfectly since entering service.