The Airbus A380 aircraft contains 300 miles of electrical cables.

The Airbus A380 is a flying city that uses about 100,000 separate wires and 40,300 connectors. All these cables weigh nearly 12,500 pounds, which is about the same as a large African elephant. To keep things organized, engineers group the wires into bundles called harnesses before putting them inside the plane.In 2005, the company faced a huge problem when they realized the design software used in different factories didn't match. This caused the wires to be too short to connect, which cost the company over $6 billion to fix. It was one of the most expensive math mistakes in history.The plane uses a smart system called Integrated Modular Avionics to help different parts of the plane share computer power. Even with this smart tech, the plane still needs 330 miles of wiring to link almost 1,000 different electronic boxes. These boxes control everything from the engines to the reading lights above your head.Safety is the main reason there is so much wire. Important systems like the steering have three or four backups. Each backup needs its own path through the plane so that if one wire breaks, the others still work perfectly.