From: "Steve Ewing" 

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 13:11:37 -0500, George Sherwood
 wrote:

> On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 17:26:21 +0000, Adam Flinton wrote:
>>>  Well guess I will be more amazed once I
>>> see it fly.   Still yet to see if the bet pays off
and the world
>>> really
>>> wants an airliner of this size.
>>
>> People said that about the 747.
>>
>> Again....same as the 747
>
> If you believe the airline industry is the same now as in 1970 then the
> arguements made against the 747 will apply to the A-380.  I don't belive
> the industry is any where near the same.  That is why I am not as sure as
> you that the comparisions apply in this case.
>
>
>> So far.....
> Time will tell.  I know when I fly international now, it just doesn't
> seem that I see as many 747's as I did in the 80 and 90's.  Could be
> the airports I use and the destinations I fly now or the industry has
> moved away from this sort of jumbo.
>
> George


"Ask The Pilot" on Salon.com gives his take (non-subscribers may
have to sit through an ad):

http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2005/01/21/askthepilot120/index.html
=====
Regulars to these pages know of my ambivalence toward the A380, and the
much-awaited uncurtaining ceremony was something I'd anticipated with equal
measures of excitement and clenched teeth. First and foremost the plane is
ugly -- a ponderous giant with none of the elegance of the Boeing 747, the
airliner it will soon supplant as world's biggest after a 35-year reign.
And while the A380's assorted superlatives and technological innovations
are certainly worthy of marvel -- it will be the first civil transport with
a gross maximum takeoff weight exceeding a million pounds
-- accolades like "milestone" and "revolutionary" are undue.


When the 747 debuted with Pan Am in 1970, it was over twice the size of its
largest existing competitors, the single-aisle Douglas DC-8 and Boeing 707,
and was able to carry three times the number of passengers. By comparison
the A380 will outlift the 747-400, its closest rival, by only about 30
percent, over roughly equal distances. It has ƒ œa tail as tall as a
seven-story building," gushed an Associated Press reporter from the
party in Toulouse. Incredible, yes. And but one story taller than the
64-foot fin of the 747. Unlike the venerable Boeing, or for that matter the
Concorde, there's nothing so fundamentally radical about the A380...
=====

--
Steve 
http://www.qmss.com/sewing

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5