[xrp]

That's a big plane, alright.

[McGavin999]

Everyone with eyes has seen what dealing with the french leads to, the Japanese are too smart to fall for it.

[Cicero]

Good news for Boeing. First Condit goes, and now this. Maybe things will turn around for them.

[teletech]

Is the A380 made with the in flight detachable vertical fin?

[ZOOKER]

Everyone knows how long it takes to board/disembark from an aircraft, especially from the "cheap seats" in the tail when there's only one exit at the front.

Now, double the length of that walk. Double it again to allow for all the irritable souls on the upper deck, all trying to crowd their way thru ONE door in the front.

I'll pass, thank you.

[JoJo Gunn]

Buy American!

[GOP Jedi]

As recently as last week, senior Airbus executives were saying they expected to sell the A380 to Japan, claiming that the plane could be packed with 900 seats on busy domestic routes between Tokyo and Kyoto or Sapporo.

And then Bush dropped steel tariffs. We'll get more out of Japan than this (see Iraq), but there's horse trading going on all over.

[GeronL]

Experts said failure in Japan leaves the Toulouse-based manufacturer with an uphill struggle to break even on the A380 - to the dismay of the British government, which provided £500m of "soft loans" for the project which are only repayable if the plane makes a profit

A government subsidy.. wait, isn't that why they are threatening with us?? Hey! Lets threaten a trade war with them!

[Skibane]

Keisuke Okada, ANA's corporate planning director, criticised the design of the superjumbo, saying larger aircraft created too many problems at airports: "Already, when I take a ride on a 747, I have to wait a long time to board - it's a crazy stress." He said baggage handling was frequently "chaos" when jumbo jets, which carry more than 560 people on domestic routes in Japan, arrived en masse.

Well, I'll be dipped...An airline manager that actually knows his business!

[the invisib1e hand]

i'm tittering, and hopeful.

it's like this. it's a lot cheaper to buy a Boeing in $'s than it is to buy a freaking socialist-made Aero-bus in Euros.

Keep up the good work, Mr. Soros (though I think you have the present administration to thank for the lower $, you schmuck)

Tee hee. I don't think even the quasi slave labor of the EU can compete in price war like this.

aside: I had no idea that the euro jet was so huge.

[Looking for Diogenes]

The FAA requires that comercial airliners in service in the USA pass an evacuation test. The entire airplane must be emptied of passengers within 90 seconds.

I know it's hard enough to believe that existing jumbo jests pass this test. I wonder how this new plane will be able to meet the standard.