ON BOARD FLIGHT SQ380 — The world's largest jetliner made aviation history today, completing its first commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney with 455 passengers, some of them ensconced in luxury suites and double beds.

The Airbus superjumbo lifted off from Singapore's Changi Airport and landed about seven hours later in Sydney. Also aboard Flight SQ380 was a crew of about 30, including four pilots.

Flight attendants handed out champagne and certificates to passengers, some of whom paid tens of thousands of dollars in an online auction for seats.

The double-decker A380 ends the nearly 37-year reign of the Boeing 747 jumbojet as the world's most spacious passenger plane.

Its European manufacturer, Airbus SAS, also claims that the A380 is the most fuel efficient and quietest passenger jet ever built.

The A380 was delivered to Singapore Airlines on Oct. 15, nearly two years behind schedule after billions of dollars in cost overruns for Airbus.

Still, the wait was worth it, says Singapore Airlines, which got the exclusivity of being the plane's sole operator for 10 months.

The Boeing 747 jumbo jet generally carries about 400 passengers. The A380 — as tall as a seven-story building with each wing big enough to hold 70 cars — is capable of carrying 853 passengers in an all-economy class configuration.

BEIJING — China's supercharged economy grew by a stunning 11.5 percent in the third quarter, slowing slightly but staying on track to overtake Germany as the world's third-largest within weeks.Growth beat economists' forecasts but was below the 11.9 percent rate the previous quarter. The government said its repeated rate hikes and other controls were finally taking effect."Due to macro-economic controls, we have turned the economy from being an overheating one to being one of speedy growth," said a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, Li Xiaochao, at a news conference to announce the figures.The communist government wants to maintain fast growth to ease poverty but worries that runaway expansion or overspending on factories and other assets could ignite a financial crisis.By The Associated Press