Airbus A-380

Quote: Sabretom2

Looks like Boeing will be building the 777 in Washington. After all the noise, the union capitulated.

Seems like the Boeing 777X could be a large thorn in the side of the A380 as it will carry almost the same amount of PAX with running costs being quite a bit lower due to the two engine configuration compared with the four of the A380.

Still going to take a hell of a plane to change my mind about the A380. It really is a dream to fly on.

Ok to lock this thread up it seems that Boeings and bigots are a hit around here and the old Airbus couldn't even garner one little vote.

Bloody Eurotrash!!! :)

Husband is an engineer for a transatlantic airline.

To quote 'Airbus are pieces of shit that break constantly and a pain in the arse to fix, Boeings are far better to work.

The computer diagnostics are a nightmare on the airbus. At home if we have to turn anything off and then on again for a reboot it's called an airbus reset because they have to do it so frequently at work.

Quote: Tomspur

The first thing that grabbed me was the very plain and unnatractive decor. Beige kosmos sleeper seats with light blue seats. Everything in the entire cabin was beige and light blue......Boring! The seats however are very comfortable as they recline all the way and you have a flat bed to sleep in.

Really? Isn't every commercial aircraft interior bland & boring? (Notable exception: Virgin America.) Surely the decor on the Korean Air flight couldn't have been much duller than the decor on the Delta flight.

Quote: reno

Really? Isn't every commercial aircraft interior bland & boring? (Notable exception: Virgin America.) Surely the decor on the Korean Air flight couldn't have been much duller than the decor on the Delta flight.

Yeah but the flight attendants make it much better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBENjxvbKO8

Decor? Safety first. Decor, hardly matters.

One of the way to look at Boeing deliveries is to see how many of the 15,444 Boeing deliveries of these 6 models went to the domestic USA market. I mean passenger jets, VIP jets, freight planes, military planes, and planes delivered to leasing companies based in the USA (who may lease the plane to an international airlines).

While it is true that some planes are resold to international carriers, the delivery percentage gives you a fairly good idea where the planes spent their life.

The striking thing is that the B757 was overwhelmingly kept as a domestic plane. Deliveries were from 1982 to 2005 and peaked at 99 deliveries in 1992. The overwhelmingly popular variant was the B757-200 version which accounted for 913 of total of 1049 deliveries. It was valued for it's 3850 -3915 nmi maximum range. All three airlines (AA, UA, DL) still have 254 active models with an average age of 19.5 years.

The decision of Boeing to not directly build a replacement for this plane, and the announcement in 2015 by Airbus to build a long range variant of the A321neo that can fly 4000 nmi is hotly debated. Airbus hopes to sell 1000 of these long range versions, about half of which can replace the B757s.

The other point of the table is to show that the B747, perhaps the most iconic plane in modern history, was actually not particularly popular with USA airlines. The initial round of orders for the first variant, starting in 1966 was predominately USA carriers (led by Pan Am), but the percentage would actually drop from 20% to 15% if we ignore the first variant.

In fact, the 747-400 variant which was sold starting in 1980 was by far the most popular version, selling massive numbers in Europe and Asia. It's success was what pushed Airbus into the A380 program. Only 60 of these planes were ordered by Northwest and United airlines. The last 20 are being retired this year. United will retire their 13 planes from active duty by the end of October, but one will be brought back for a big party and a flight from SFO to HNL on November 7th. Delta (who inherited them from Northwest) has not put a firm date on the retirement of the final 7 planes, but they have indicated that it will be before the New Year.

Given the waning interest over the last few decades in the B747 in the USA, coupled with the 9-11 shock and the crash of 2007, it is not surprising that no USA airline was interested in the A380.

The real shocker was that Japan arline (JAL) who bought 108 B747s didn't show an interest in the A380. Airbus was also hoping to sell a lot of planes to China, Hong Kong, and Tawain.

As of August 2017

Basically the only thing keeping the 747-8 production line open is the freighter version. There are 17 undelivered freighters and 3 undelivered passenger planes.

The A380 cannot fall back on the freighter program because it was cancelled.

Paco,

I love that you keep up with these things. I must admit to a bit of triste, though, at the thought of retiring the B747s. My favorite airplane by far.

My first flight anywhere was on a B747, ORD to London. Met 3 other coeds on the airplane, we ditched the group and ran wild for 3 weeks. VERY memorable. They still had the bar upstairs rather than more seating.

My first familiarization (cockpit flight) was also a B747. Funny story. I tried to act like I'd done it before, said oh, no, I know my way to the FA at the door, and walked confidently through 1st class into the coat closet. Ummm. Upstairs, huh? Oops.

My first sitting President was WJC, and he was in the new B747 AF-1. I have a signed photo of that aircraft on our tarmac, framed on my wall.

Sigh...