Five A380s were built for testing and demonstration purposes.
The double-deck aircraft had to succeed in lots of tests before being certified as a commercial plane by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Jacques Rosay and his team make this test, and to name a few, the A380 achieved its maximum speed of Mach 0.96 (versus normal cruising speed of Mach 0.85), on December 1st 2005. On 10 January 2006 the A380 made its first transatlantic flight to Colombia, to test engine performance at a high altitude airport. And it arrived in North America on February 6th landing in Canada for cold-weather testing.

On 26 March 2006 the A380 underwent evacuation certification in Hamburg in Germany. With 8 of the 16 exits blocked, 853 passengers and 20 crew left the aircraft in 78 seconds, less than the 90 seconds required by certification standards. Three days later, the A380 received EASA and FAA approval to carry up to 853 passengers.