Notso Fantastic,
If you read around Airbus has already stated that the upper part of the slides on the upper deck of the A380 have a horizon shield so that the person jumping cannot tell how high off the ground they really are. You also cannot see the bottom of the slide. Their words not mine.
The 1.3 seconds is derived by using the cert requirements (half the upper doors) which is 3 doors. 200 divided by 3 equals 66.67 persons per door. You then divide 90 seconds by 66.67 people to get 1.3 seconds per person. This is very conservative as none of the people in the test including the crew no which three doors will be unusable until they open them. It also does not take into account the amount of time necessary to extend the slides. I suppose they could get lucky and only open the doors that are not blocked off. It is also pitch black with only emergency lighting so you are asking 200 people to blindly jump into a black hole and hope to god they don't get hurt. The problem is, these people know there is no emergency and the only danger they are in is from the test itself.
Rollingthunder,
The airframe design changed when the upper deck was shortened. I have many pictures of the concept airplane models. I also have pictures of the 747 with two engines on wing and one in the tail. The wood model still exists and is not far from my desk.
skyhawk1,
Why would anyone design a plane with only one use intended and cut themselves off from the rest of the market? Nobody is that stupid. The 747 was always intended to enter both the military market and the passenger market. Just like the C-17 will eventually enter the commercial cargo market as the BC-17.
I wish I could post the pictures and the documentation from when the 747 was first thought up, but alas they hang people for that in the USA.
