First A380 being delivered to Singapore Airlines Today

Live on BBC News 24 and web at the momement 0905 GMT



A380 being handed over

Just announced the A380 airbus will have 12 suites that feature a fully featured chair and a full-sized single bed.


BBC News story

[edit on 15-10-2007 by Popeye]

AAAAArrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh




John Leahy.... I wish that man would just shut up and clear off.

Mod Edit: Don't bypass the censors




[edit on 10/19/07 by FredT]

Couple of other points.


1. A few of us here think that the 380 is still quite 'stubby'... leaving room for possible expansion?



2. With the current Boeing/Airbus forecasts, there will be room for both the 787/350 and the 380 approach in the marketplace. Where airport capacity is limited by movements, the 380 will dominate, where its not, the other two would expect to be stronger.

Places like Heathrow & O'Hare, where runway expansions present big issues will be forced to use the 380 to increase passenger density.

Originally posted by kilcoo316
Couple of other points.
1. A few of us here think that the 380 is still quite 'stubby'... leaving room for possible expansion?

Its specifically designed with a stretch in mind - the entire plane is biased toward the -900 stretch and the -800R enhanced range models, so further development of the family is meant to be cheap and quick.

While the A380-800 is extremely efficient, its not as efficient as it could be due to the over design of the wings and other parts.

2. With the current Boeing/Airbus forecasts, there will be room for both the 787/350 and the 380 approach in the marketplace. Where airport capacity is limited by movements, the 380 will dominate, where its not, the other two would expect to be stronger.

Places like Heathrow & O'Hare, where runway expansions present big issues will be forced to use the 380 to increase passenger density.

If you speak to many industry enthusiasts (not industry members, but people that tend to hang around on forums like these), many of them will tell of a war between hub and spoke-to-spoke - the A380 is supposed to be designed with hubbing (trunk routes between major large airports) and the 787 with point-to-point (flying directly from a secondary airport to another secondary airport) in mind, and how point-to-point will destroy the hub market altogether.

Its largly a stupid argument, because neither model is going away, and neither model will see a decrease in traffic - hubs will still grow even as people switch to the p2p routes, because theres more reason to use a hub than switching aircraft (most hubs also serve a significant amount of origin and destination traffic - O&D in the industry).

So, yes, theres plenty of room for both types on the table.

Agreed. A hub is usually a hub for a reason - be it convention centres, facilities, businesses etc etc etc.


But the forecast is for a 4 or 5% annual growth in airtravel over the next 25 years, that means by 2030 ish, airtravel will be around 260% current levels.


Airports will be saturated - and with opposition to runway expansion increasing passenger density while maintaining movement numbers will be key.

Originally posted by kilcoo316
AAAAArrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh




John F**KING Leahy.... I wish that man would just shut up and clear off.

I agree.

$100K for a ticket to be on the first commerical flight??!!

Isn't this mass transit supposed to reduce ticket prices?

reply to post by Daedalus3


Well Daedalus. It is its first commercial flight and the prices will tumble when more and more A380`s are being deliverd.

I would love to fly on one off those

The initial beak even point was 240 units, but the current projections are 420+.

That is a large number of aircraft to sale for such a limited market. With only 189 ordered (165 firm, 24 pending) it is going to be a long time for Airbus to dig out of this hole.

EADS Order Release - 10/2007

The 380 has completed its first commerical flight.


For some BRILLIANT panoramic photos, see here:

www.gillesvidal.com...



I soooo have to get me one of those

I have already posted the link to the panoramic shots to my boss and requested Premier Class the next time I fly to Singapore. I await his answer with baited breath

Even the economy class cabin looks great

A380 Goes in to service!

Just looked at the pics on the BBC and having seen and heard all the hype about this plane for so long I'm really pleased to see it/her go in to service.

I'm really hoping that flight costs will come down and make the world an even smaller place, giving people the chance to see, feel and experience other cultures first hand.

Here's to hope!

MonKey

Did my own thread - which was rightfully closed - so copied across to this one.

Edit to remove links that can't be copy and pasted!! Dumb Monkey!!




[edit on 25/10/07 by ChiKeyMonKey]

The first flight was to raise money for charity. They raised about $1.9 million. That included $100,000+ for two people to fly in suites, and a US man who also flew on the first commercial flight of the Boeing 747.

reply to post by Zaphod58


The guy on the 747 and A380 flights must have been pure PR I'm guessing eh Zaph?

Originally posted by RichardPrice
While the A380-800 is extremely efficient, its not as efficient as it could be due to the over design of the wings and other parts.

Over designed maybe but you can't argue that the fact that the A380 can land at the same speed as a A320 is pretty impressive. Over designed for a reason perhaps.

It wouldn't surprise me if he was put on the flight deliberately, just to say they had him on the plane. But it must be pretty cool to be able to say that you were on both first flights.

Originally posted by Canada_EH
Over designed maybe but you can't argue that the fact that the A380 can land at the same speed as a A320 is pretty impressive. Over designed for a reason perhaps.

Nah, I think your mis-understanding the term, it doesn't mean complexity here.


Over design in this context means the wing is too big, and the design point isn't properly matching up to the actual operating point.

[edit on 26/10/07 by kilcoo316]

Originally posted by ChiKeyMonKey
A380 Goes in to service!

Just looked at the pics on the BBC and having seen and heard all the hype




[edit on 25/10/07 by ChiKeyMonKey]

It is very ugly looking and looks like an over weight pig about to snort.

Surely they could come up with a better design...

it is very boring.


very very dull


no sex appeal.


grey boring and dull.

only us Americans can produce true glamour and excitement.

[edit on 26-10-2007 by esecallum]

reply to post by esecallum


Wow if you have heard it once you have heard it a 1000 times. Everyone knows that some people don't like how it looks mind you I could claim the 747 looked like a hunchback, would you care? No? Oh good know you understand why I dont care how u think it looks.

Ohh no, look who's back for another round

Originally posted by esecallum
It is very ugly looking and looks like an over weight pig about to snort.

Surely they could come up with a better design...

Can you do any better?

Originally posted by esecallum
it is very boring.

As are you, except when you say something silly like this, then it gets amusing.

Originally posted by esecallum
very very dull

As are your brilliant observations.

Originally posted by esecallum
no sex appeal.

It's an inanimate object, therefore the likelyhood of it having either a gender or gender appeal is remote..... Unless your into that sort of thing.

Originally posted by esecallum
grey boring and dull.

Again with the same point. Well at least your predicatably consistent I guess?

Originally posted by esecallum
only us Americans can produce true glamour and excitement.

Oh thats nice, and very modest too.
So tell me what brilliant flashy designs have you "us Americans" come up with to beat it? The 787 is pretty much a tube and wing design too you know?(my sincere apologies and sympathies to any Yanks who are embarressed by this kind of clown talk)

As a side note I saw the A-380 from a distance when it flew over on thursday to land in Sydney. Ironically I was in a lecture on aircraft systems in Western Sydney when I saw it out the window. Seems I will also be working on it when it arrives next year at Qantas I was told as well.

My sister who's a customs officer saw it close up at the terminal at KSA, her comment was "yeah it's just another bloody big aircraft with even more passengers I have to process".
There's no pleasing some people.

LEE.



[edit on 27-10-2007 by thebozeian]