March 8, 2007
TRAGEDY? IT'S A COMEDY:
The Airbus Tragedy (Thomas Lifson, 3/08/07, Real Clear Politics)
Like characters in an ancient Greek tragedy, players in the Airbus drama are betraying their fatal flaws, and moving, almost inevitably, toward a dénouement that will bring serious misfortune to all. Despite failure upon failure, no one is willing to suggest openly killing the troubled A 380 program, which seems to destined to drag down not just the still viable parts of the company, but also the workers, localities hosting factories, and even the governments of France and Germany.Airbus wanly puts an official happy face on the setbacks of the past week, and is squandering its credibility - an essential quality for an airliner manufacturer -- at an alarming rate.
What could be more comic than the folks who keep insisting that the A380 will dominate the skies? Heck, some of them are likely still camped out at Memphis Airport waiting for the first to land.... Posted by Orrin Judd at March 8, 2007 9:01 AM
Every afternoon around 4:50 (if the wind is from the south), the Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt flies over my house (at 3000 ft. or so). It is an Airbus A340, and is quite a sight. The A380 would be even more amazing.
But the aesthetic has nothing to do with the Airbus "business model". Like the rest of Europe, it is coagulation in progress.
FedEx cancelled their order, so those folks in Memphis are in for a long hot summer.
Posted by: jim hamlen at March 8, 2007 10:49 AM"...drag down not just the still viable parts of the company, but also the workers, localities hosting factories, and even the governments of France and Germany." Without the land bound whales, they won't have the factories and workers to be hosted by said localities.
Posted by: ic at March 8, 2007 2:37 PM