Airbus bangs another hole into our once great Boeing

Here's another bang into the formerly unrivalled American aerospace biz. Airbus has started flying their new A380.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4994114.stm

These are still test flights, but that won't be the case for long. I cheer for Airbus, mainly on the basis of my being a fan of techonological achievment. I worry about yet another industry in which America once led the world. This, however, is not a case of our technological lead being offshored. This is a case of a homegrown (in Europe) company simply moving forward on their own devices.

The new 380 is the largest commercial airliner ever built ... and now it is in the air ... and on the ground at a commercial aiport.

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,464266,00.jpg

This plane has two complete decks and stands more than 8 stories high. A flying machine .... indeed.

You know the rest. I fly fairly often, and I'm not sure I'd step foot in one of those Behemoths.:scared:

...between an aircraft's size and its safety.

I dealt with them back in the 1980s, when they were trying to make inroads with some of our carriers - I helped represent an airline - and the people who were involved were so elegant and professional, I've even stayed in touch with a lot of them since then.

They're good, and the United States lost another advantage.

They were a client of mine, too, when they built their US offices out by Dulles. They're no longer there, however. AOL has since bought the campus and now has their HQ there.

You're right. They're good people.

ever seen, but it is a technological marvel. Oh yeah, it is HUGE.

it could be over a year delay,,, Composites.

Direct from Boeing ...... just copy the picture and save it on your computer .....



http://www.boeing.com/commercial/787family/index.html

.... cuz that's the only way anyone can get one ..... since it is still lines on drawings and bits and bytes in Boeing's engineering computer systems.

Airbus' high flying (pun intended) would have NOTHING to do with their massive governmental subsidies or with the European Union ruling that Boeing had U.S. government support (through its military work) and therefore they could levy an import duty on Boeing planes - coincidentally AT THE VERY SAME TIME several national airlines were shopping for new airliners.

We've done exactly the same thing.

But no more. Now that we now find it cheaper to just ship jobs offshore and reward the shippers with tax cuts.

Some, like me, might argue that such a concept is called 'national security'. Some, like me, might argue that we should be doing it, to. Some, like me, might also postulate that we should be doing a lot of it. Some, like me, would also say that Japan's near-total ban on the importation of their cultural staple, rice, is a good thing for the Japaneses and that we should be doing such things, too.

And by the way. I'm a capitalist. But I'm not a free marketeer ... I'm a fair marketeer who also believes in national security, which touches on waaaaaaaaay more than guns and Iraqis and Mexicans.

I'm just sayin' .....

That's what I heard on the teevee.

I assume Boeing had something at least on the drawing boards to compete with this.

only do govt business. :grr:

Not only is it Airbus, but all the new commuter jets are coming from Canada or Brazil. Why is that Boeing. There are hundreds of these planes all over the US. While the 380 is nice and big. Canada will sell 20-30 commuter jets for every one of the 380s.

Think of all the jobs lost to Europe/Canada/Brazil

.... and not just Canada and Brazil ......

Wasn't the Short built in Northern Ireland?


I'm sure other countries are also players ... but you're very right. Canada and brazil are doing **very** well with very sophisticated commuter plans.

and to the small jets.

But the shorts will always find a home on St. Barts :)

to the airport at Castries, St. Lucia.



The 380 would have to turn on its side to get through! I flew into this airport in a Cessna and the wingtips seemed to brush the leaves on the trees!

Yes, the old Shorts are not too much in use for CONUS commuters anymore.

Apart from the Embraers and DeHavilands, what else *are* our commuters flying? I know some are using Fokkers.

About a year ago I flew on it from nowhere La to Memphis Tn.

The Saabs always had a weight issue. Had to spend a lot of time on it mainly at night from Tn to La as they got enough pax OFF the plane. Ok we need two vol. ........ Well folks that was not enough we need one more .... :)

though some RJ's are now flying here as well.

Looks like you're going to land on the golf course, then it's breaks breaks breaks.....

either. Their YF-23 lost out to Lockheed-Martin's F-22 (amazing airplane, that); they lost the JSF contract to LockMart's F-35 (another amazing plane); the V-22 is moving at a snail's pace with an uncertain future; the USAF tanker program is uncertain due to contract shenanigans; the Airborne Laser (YAL-1A) is doing well but is a small program involving only a handful of planes; and so on.

In the past, Boeing's civil and military aviation branches complemented each other, with R&D on one side often helping the other. Now, it appears that both are withering on the vine, and that's sad.

and in other non-plane govt programs. But not like the comm. aircraft business that they like IBM used to rule.

if that's all they can hang onto, though.

Their commercial aircraft segment is doing VERY well at the moment on the basis of their 787 and 777 sales which are far outpacing Airbus at the moment. Airbus also now faces another expensive project as their proposed A350 has been sent back to the drawing board due to very poor sales in comparison with the 787.

It was after Boeing sold those 60 planes to Quantas, again beating Airbus for a contract, that aviation experts started sounding the alarm bells for Airbus. While most people realized there will always be ebb and flow, they also stated that Boeing is ahead at this point.

That being said, Airbus has an edge because they get subsidies from the EU. Yeah, it's against the WTO rules, but evidently we don't care. Fancy that...

their computers at times.....I hope this one is OK.

I forget the site, but you can read all about various incidents that aren't big enough to get on FAUX or MSNBC....after surveying the constant MD80 problems, notably electrical, I don't think I would get on of those....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4990780.stm

A long time ago I saw a mockup with a waterfall....this report talks about showers and boutiques.....

Which leads me to recal a flight on a 747 out to LA years ago I took for business. The airline decided it was cool to serve food BUFFET style...what a disaster. It got bumpy so here we are with knives and forks and plates of food stumbling around trying to get back to our seats!!

I hope they don't forget that we're at 30,000 feet...it seems awful lax to serve food that way...waterfalls, etc. More electrical complications, it seems to me....SAFETY FIRST!!