[bow][bow][4:-)][party]Congratulations to Airbus today on the maiden flight of thier new Airbus A380, I didn’t think it would take off, but what do I know, and a really short take off for such a huge aircraft, so come on Boeing lets see your flight of the Dreamliner, Airbus wins my vote, how about you ?.
scott.
Not much of an Airbus fan. I just wish them good luck on selling that monster.
I watched the flight this morning. With seating for 800 passengers, it’s a monster.
Regards, Rick
It is one big b*stard! Check out CNN.com for some galleries…interesting write up as well…
They seem to have buyers all set, Emirates and Singapore Airlines…and of course there are concept models, Virgin CEO Branson is talking about installing gyms and casinos in them…
Makes me think about the Concord. Bit of a debacle really. 747 bought air transport to the masses UK/France missed with the speed issue. Concord too expensive to fly and maintain and put it out of the reach from most flying consumers.
Wonder what the costs of keeping one of these behemoths going is…will it backfire like the Concord did? Does Boeing have the right mix of size and service with the 747 and 777?
As a dutchman, I’m proud of the A-380!
Why? Because of a significant Dutch invention which is used in the A-380. It’s called Glare, it’s a new sandwich material, developt by the university of Delft. Thanks to the use of Glare, the A-380 is a lot lighter then if it would have been build with conventional aluminum.
As for fancy gyms/bars or lounges in the plane, it ain’t going to happen. They are just going to cram more paying passangers in the plane!
Watched it today , its awesome ,
but lets not count our chickens yet though , Boeing has had this market for ages ,lets see what happens
Impressive feat of engineering… I just wish Boeing had been able to go ahead with the Sonic Cruiser. That design was one of beauty. Sorry Europe, but the A380 reminds me of a Beluga Whale…
I think it’s neat about all the publicity, but I also feel that this plane is the “Great Eastern” of aviation. Too many airports that are now finacially stretched must modify to accomodate it. I can see a few being used to trans-world flights for luxury paying passengers while the airlines continue to pack us regulars on 767s and A300s for 14 to 21 hours stretches for the sake of economy. Far as technology, it is no different than a C5 or AN-225.
Scott
I’m sure it will be at least moderately succesful in the world markets. I’d just like to see them compete with Boeing on equal footing, without the benefit of massive tax relief from the EU.
I’m not happy when I’m one of 150 people trying to get my luggage. Can you imagine being 1 of 800? I read a while back that ther were only about 8 airports in the world that could support the weight of these proposed monsters. I don’t know if Aibus changed the footprint of this guy to spread the weight out so a lot of changes won’t be necessary at airports.
I’m sorry to say that we already have a Beluga [;)] [:D][:D]
True… that one does look more like a Beluga - hense it’s name! I forgot about that one. Still, the A380 has a cetacean look to it.
I’ll stick with Boeing and their wide range of 7xx airliners. They are competing the hard way, on their own money without HUGE government subsidies from multiple different governments.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
It’s good to have competition, but I’m still rooting for Boeing. Which owns the entire market spare a few small competitors and Airbus.
as for all the fuss about goverment funding and subsidies, lets not go down that road again! [#offtopic
I just love that bird !!!
I saw the flight on the news on the television and on the internet.
If anyone is interested in the url:
http://www.ftv.nl/videoplayer/index.cfm?fuseaction=videolaunch&video_id=180903&nbg=ftv
It is spoken in flemish (Dutch), sorry for the English-speaking guys…
Cheers,
Jürgen
I believe that Boeing did a study 10 years ago and decided that building a plane that big for the U.S. market was not cost effective. If they thought it was feaseable, it would already be flying.
Can you say Stupid??? That many people, in that much aircraft wrapped around that much fuel is an accident waiting to happen. And if it goes down in a populated area??? Anyway, 2 predomently Airbus customers have just chosen Boeng to replace their fleets. And the huge risk Airbus is taking with this leviathon is the reason why.
my vote goes to airbus. i had watched the special on the history channel about the huge plane with john travolta as host and i was blown away with the cool stuff on it.
Impressive, the monster flies, but how practical is it
