Airbus A380.
Did people see the launch of the new Airbus 380 yesterday? What a beast – It’s HUGE . More here.
I used to be an aircraft engineer, 6 years RAF then 4 years in civilian life building bits and pieces for a variety of aircraft, including the older Airbus’. I suppose I still have a fascination for all things aeronautic, though I will confess to being a bit of a wuss when it comes to actually flying.
There are a couple of things that are impressive about the A380. First the sheer scale of it. The 747 carries about 440 passengers, a normally configured A380 will carry 550 and have bars, a cinema, double beds (no sniggering at the back please), a casino even. In sardine mode it will carry 880. That’s more people than watched Southampton play in the whole of December. Where Boeing have, with their 7E7, gone down the route of smaller aircraft able to fly to pretty much any commercial airport, Airbus have gone for an aircraft taking large numbers to the major ‘hub’ airports, to be ferried onto the smaller ones.
Next, the technology involved is, as you would expect absolutely cutting edge. Aircraft are evolving again. I was pretty stunned when BA announced that they were scrapping the Concord last year. OK it was old, small and never made a profit but wasn’t it beautiful? Wasn’t it the only supersonic passenger plane in the world? What a lack of imagination and vision when it was dumped. Can anyone think of another time that technology has gone backwards? Will Ford stop making the GT and start making the Model T again? Will they heck. Thank god there is still some vision in the aircraft industry.
It really should mean that Europe takes over from the US as the big player in aircraft manufacture.
I used to be an aircraft engineer, 6 years RAF then 4 years in civilian life building bits and pieces for a variety of aircraft, including the older Airbus’. I suppose I still have a fascination for all things aeronautic, though I will confess to being a bit of a wuss when it comes to actually flying.
There are a couple of things that are impressive about the A380. First the sheer scale of it. The 747 carries about 440 passengers, a normally configured A380 will carry 550 and have bars, a cinema, double beds (no sniggering at the back please), a casino even. In sardine mode it will carry 880. That’s more people than watched Southampton play in the whole of December. Where Boeing have, with their 7E7, gone down the route of smaller aircraft able to fly to pretty much any commercial airport, Airbus have gone for an aircraft taking large numbers to the major ‘hub’ airports, to be ferried onto the smaller ones.
Next, the technology involved is, as you would expect absolutely cutting edge. Aircraft are evolving again. I was pretty stunned when BA announced that they were scrapping the Concord last year. OK it was old, small and never made a profit but wasn’t it beautiful? Wasn’t it the only supersonic passenger plane in the world? What a lack of imagination and vision when it was dumped. Can anyone think of another time that technology has gone backwards? Will Ford stop making the GT and start making the Model T again? Will they heck. Thank god there is still some vision in the aircraft industry.
It really should mean that Europe takes over from the US as the big player in aircraft manufacture.
posted by phylos @ 22:48
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home