June 27, 2005
YOU KNOW HOW PARIS TREAT ITS QUEENS:
Giant A380 falling short of big billing (David Greising, June 26, 2005, Chicago Tribune)
The A380, the superjumbo jet from Airbus SAS, was billed as "The Queen of the Paris Air Show" by the public address announcer as it promenaded down the tarmac en route to its slow-moving flyover of the Le Bourget airfield.Posted by Orrin Judd at June 27, 2005 12:00 AMBut on the sales floor, the A380 was the prom queen that couldn't get a date.
The only taker for the A380, a double-decked giant that seats at least 550 passsengers, was start-up carrier Kingfisher Airlines of India. Kingfisher joined the stampede of Indian carriers ordering airplanes in Paris. Its flamboyant chief executive, Vijay Mallya, inked an order for five A380s.
And that was it.
The most worrisome graph in the story -- at least if you're a potential passenger -- is this:
While people at the air show marveled at seeing such a huge plane fly, they also picked at some of its apparent shortcomings. It was noted that a breakthrough material Airbus is using on the plane, called Glare, a lightweight sandwich of aluminum and fiberglass, is not being used on the A350. This indicates to some observers that Glare has fallen short of Airbus' initially high expectations. And the fact that Airbus flew the A380 with its landing gear down stirred suspicions that the aircraftmaker may be having a hard time perfecting the plane's landing gear. Airbus officials denied any problems, saying simply that the landing gear takes nearly a half-minute to retract--too much time to retract and open the gear during the plane's five-minute time in the air at the show.
A looming white elephant, and outside of Dumbo, elephants have never been very good at flying. But it will be interesting to see if Airbus' parents will allow the company to take its financial punishement if the plane is a flop, or if they bail it out via some bookkeeping measures to hide illegal subsidies.
Posted by: John at June 27, 2005 12:48 AMKnit one, purl one.
Posted by: ghostcat at June 27, 2005 12:56 AMKingfisher Airlines will not be serving the eponymous beer on the Hadj run.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at June 27, 2005 1:46 AMYou are having way too much fun with this.
Posted by: joe shropshire at June 27, 2005 2:49 AMbreakthrough material Airbus is using on the plane, called Glare, a lightweight sandwich of aluminum and fiberglass
Breakthrough material? Huh?
The operational airplane I flew, the F-111, used just such a material--honeycomb fiberglass sandwhiched between layers of aluminum--for the horizontal and vertical stabilizers.
The F-111 was designed and built in the 60s.
So how many airports are now willing to spend the $100 million (average) upgrade needed to handle the A380?
Posted by: David at June 27, 2005 8:17 AMOnly authoritarian ones.
Posted by: oj at June 27, 2005 10:38 AMJeff: You flew 111s? Tutto Respecto Don Guinn, Tutti Respecto.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at June 27, 2005 11:10 AMWhat Robert said. Where were you stationed?
Posted by: joe shropshire at June 27, 2005 2:15 PMRobert, Joe:
Thanks.
Cannon AFB, NM; Mtn Home AFB, ID; and RAF Upper Heyford, UK (twice).
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at June 27, 2005 4:09 PM