I try not to mix my work with Armorama, but I would love to share this great moment with the Aircraft Talk community.

For the first time, we get to see a real piece of airbus 380. Can't wait to see the whole bird completed... Airbus rules !

That is going to be one big beast. I wonder if it could be the one to finally put the 747 to rest? That's assuming the thing stays in the air!

In the words of the late, great John Candy: Holy [auto-censored]!

Dear Sir,

With all due respect, if it ain't Boeing, I ain't going.

Dear Sir,
That may well be true for military technology, but I'm sorry to tell you that since last year, they no longer are in the #1 position in the sale of commercial jetliners.



It will not, and is not intended to. B744 and A380 serve different market needs.




Isn't that what people said before 1969 when the first 747 was under construction ? Where's your faith in aviation ?!
I'd gladly volunteer to be on the first test flight.

I wasn't refering to the soundness of the design. I was thinking more of the economical fragility of modern air transport. It could only take a massive terrorist attack on airlines or a surge in the price of oil to plunge the industry into recession harming all new aircraft development.

Dear Sir,

That was not the intent of my statement. I see Airbus all over the US, but not with any of the airlines that I fly, and the last I knew, Airbus had something like 30% of the total market share. (?) They may very well have out-sold Boeing last year on a one-to-one basis, I do not argue that, and perhaps in the future, Airbus aircraft will become the peferred 'aircraft of choice'.

I wish Airbus well in these difficult times for the Airline Industry, and yes, I would love to have your job (I wish you well also!), but I hope that the airlines that have purchased this behemouth can actually fill all those seats. Do you have current average flight capacity statistics on the A340, B747,B767 or B777 by any chance? I can only see the frequency and the convienience of flights diminish with this aircraft flying now or at any time in the forseeable future. Is the range and speed of this a/c any greater than that of the B747-400? What is the advantage of this aircraft besides the fact that it seats 600 +/-? Price? (I am assuming that there are no longer any EU subsidaries going on to keep AB afloat...?)

I think that if I were Mr. Airbus Industrie, I would most likely not have decided to launch this aircraft now, but that is my humble opinion only and obviously one that is not shared with Mr. Airbus Industrie. My investments are with and will remain with Boeing, as I see that their future plans are more in sync with the current and future state of affairs.

I would prefer to fly to Tokyo from (Boston MA) faster and higher with fewer people and with Boeing than slower and lower with 599 others on an Airbus. That is where my money sees the future going and I wish Boeing much success with that in the future.

With all due respect...