January 17, 200521 yr Wow. :o Airbus to Unveil Largest Passenger Jet Sun Jan 16, 5:56 PM ET By LAURENCE FROST and LAURENT LEMEL, Associated Press Writers PARIS - Airbus, which has delivered more airplanes than Boeing for the second year in a row, is about to unveil another No. 1: the world's largest passenger jet. AP Photo Providers - Disclaimer The A380, a four-aisle, four-engine, double-decker "superjumbo," will roll onto the tarmac Tuesday at Airbus headquarters in southern France, in a lavish ceremony attended by EU leaders and thousands of guests. Sales have beat expectations so far, and most of the technical problems that have dogged the program have been resolved, at a price. But the real sighs of relief won't be heard in Toulouse until later ? sometime before March 31, Airbus says ? when the A380 hauls its 280-metric ton (308-ton) frame aloft. That's when the plane's engineers will begin to find out whether their gargantuan offspring lives up to the performance promises, as the first test-flight data streams in. In a standard three-class cabin configuration, the A380 will carry 555 passengers ? one-third more than the plane it is designed to displace, the Boeing 747. On a full tank, it will also carry them 5 percent further than Boeing's longest-range jumbo, Airbus claims, producing costs per passenger that are up to one-fifth below its rival's. Meeting these targets has been "no picnic," Airbus CEO Noel Forgeard acknowledged Wednesday, when he also confirmed that the A380 is both over budget and slightly overweight. Forgeard said the plane will weigh in about 1 percent heavier than its target of 277 metric tons (305 tons) but stressed it will still deliver on promised fuel efficiency and other guarantees, since the internal benchmark was deliberately overambitious. He said the program's $1.9 billion overspend ? 18 percent of its $10.7 billion overall budget at current exchange rates ? would likely be trimmed by a renewed cost-cutting drive. The struggle to meet weight targets accounts for much of the overspending, Airbus officials say. Jean-Claude Schoepf, head of the A380 final assembly line, said the problem became a headache early on. "We found there was too much mass," Schoepf said. "We had to work pretty hard to get back to the specifications we'd committed ourselves to with our clients." Parts went back to the drawing board to be meticulously pared down, without sacrificing strength. More carbon composites were introduced ? for example, in the horizontal struts that support the two cabin floors and hold the fuselage in shape. By using chromate-free paint, engineers got the outer paintwork down to about 350 kilograms (770 pounds), Schoepf said. "That's compared to 550 kilograms (1,210 pounds) for a plane of this size using other paints." At the giant hangar where Schoepf and his 1,500 engineers and support staff work, wings, nose cones and fuselage sections arrive by road convoys after being transported by barges from Bordeaux, western France, where they come in from Airbus facilities in Spain, Britain, Germany and elsewhere in France. By 2008, Schoepf plans to hire another 1,000 staff to boost the production rate to one A380 per week. Airbus has 139 firm A380 orders from 13 airlines and freight companies, worth $39 billion before any discounts on the plane's $280 million list price. A new 747 costs up to $211 million before discounts. The backlog will rise when UPS Inc. finalizes a deal to acquire 10 of the A380's freighter versions, with options on 10 more. The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., which owns 80 percent of Airbus, says the A380 program will break even at about 250 sales. Over the next 20 years, Airbus sees global demand for 1,250 A380-size behemoths to shuttle passengers between the world's largest airports, which serve as connecting hubs for flights to less busy destinations. More than half the new superjumbos will fly between just 10 major airports, Airbus forecasts, mainly in Asia. Singapore Airlines Ltd. is scheduled to become the first carrier to operate the A380, in the second half of 2006. Chicago-based Boeing Co., like Airbus, expects overall air passenger traffic to increase threefold over the next two decades. But Boeing forecasts only "a few hundred" sales of very large planes, as travelers reject stopovers in favor of direct service aboard smaller long-range jets ? like its fuel-efficient 7E7 Dreamliner, due to enter service in 2008. "The data shows unquestionably that passengers, when they can, want to fly from wherever they are to wherever they're going, without having to connect in a hub," said Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher. "The A380 is flying into the headwind of reality." But Boeing, which delivered 285 planes in 2004 to Airbus' 320, is hedging its bets. It announced plans last year for a larger, 450-seat 747, despite having dismissed the case for a bigger plane since Airbus began discussing the concept in 1991. A launch decision is expected in mid-2005. Whichever way the wind blows in Toulouse on Tuesday, the A380 seems certain to become a milestone in civil aviation history alongside the 747 and Concorde. Unlike the supersonic Concorde, however, whose claim to fame was how fast it crossed the Atlantic, this latest fruit of European aerospace cooperation will ultimately be judged on how fast it makes money. Link Pictures
January 17, 200521 yr Looks like a fat target :plain 657880[/snapback] Because a 747 is so much tinier that your average terrorist couldn't SAM it if he so pleased. I'm tired of your anti-European crap. At any rate, will this thing fit at airports as they're configured now or will new gates and perhaps even terminals need to be constructed to fit those big bitches?
January 17, 200521 yr Author At any rate, will this thing fit at airports as they're configured now or will new gates and perhaps even terminals need to be constructed to fit those big bitches? 657958[/snapback] I dont see how these can fit into gates now, they about 50% bigger than the 747. A few European airports may, I think they'll just put stairs to get in on from the tarmac. Sadly airlines in the US don't have the money to buy these. :thumbdown
January 17, 200521 yr Looks like a fat target :plain 657880[/snapback] OMG That's exactly what my first thought was.
January 17, 200521 yr Author I just heard on the radio theres been 149 orders, most of them in Asia. Don't expect this things to really be in America.
January 17, 200521 yr That looks exactly like the Super Guppy, which Airbus made to ship space shuttle parts by air back and forth across the Atlantic.
January 18, 200521 yr Looks like a fat target :plain 657880[/snapback] OMG That's exactly what my first thought was. 658044[/snapback] Welcome to the "anti-european" vast right wing conspiracy! We have a large tent :lol 658311[/snapback] I'm pretty sure she's being sarcastic.
January 18, 200521 yr Author Boeing's take on it: The difference (now) is how we view the evolution of the market," Boeing executive Randy Baseler says. Changing conditions are driving demand for smaller planes, he says. Passengers want flexibility. Smaller airliners can now fly longer distances. There's more competition among the airlines, and countries are imposing fewer flight restrictions on foreign carriers. Baseler cites Boeing's own experience with customer demand as a case in point. In 1985, when Boeing introduced the first 200-seat plane that could cross the Atlantic, the 767, it immediately started stealing market share from the larger 747 - even though the smaller plane costs one-fifth more to operate per seat-mile. "Why did that happen? Because passengers want more frequencies and more non-stops," Baseler says. Boeing saw the same trend on Asian routes when it launched the 300-seat 777-ER in the 1990s. That's why Boeing is spending up to $10 billion to develop the midsize 7E7 Dreamliner. The 7E7 will be able to fly non-stop between almost any two airports in the world. The body is made from carbon-fiber reinforced plastic - aviation technology never attempted on this scale. The superlight plane will use 20% less fuel than other planes of the same size. With the new reinforced plastic body, the planes will have much larger windows, improved pressurization to minimize ear-popping during takeoffs and landings, and more humidity to ease passengers' dry throats and eyes. The 7E7, with a price tag of $120 million, will be unveiled at the end of next year, and Japan's All Nippon Airways will be the first to start flying the planes in 2008. Baseler says Airbus' plans to build the midsize A350, "basically takes their 20-year product strategy and throws it out the window." Airbus' Leahy disputes that interpretation. If it aint Boeing, I aint going. :whistle
January 18, 200521 yr I'm pretty sure she's being sarcastic. It seems you are having a Kreskin kinda day. (at least) Two mind readings within 24 hours. Most impressive. :thumbup :notworthy Now THAT is sarcasm. 658472[/snapback] I'm destroyed. I didn't catch on to sarcasm on the internet. My life is over. I'm just gonna move to France and eat croissants, smoke cigarettes, and watch Michael Moore movies all day. :plain
January 18, 200521 yr What a behemoth! While there will be some demand for large hub to hub planes, I believe Boeing has the better long term strategy as consumers demand greater convenience. Can you imagine the time to load and unload a 555 passenger plane from any of today's terminals? And can you imagine loading it using busses from the tarmac at Charles de Gaulle? :plain
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