There is at least one member who posts some pretty informative articles in these threads sometimes (Central Scrutinizer?).
As for myself, I like for people and companies to dream big. While I am not the biggest fan of Airbus, I do want to see large projects succeed, in general. I believe this beast will eventually fly and be minimally profitable for Airbus, not that profitability matters much to them..
Thanks for the ping, the bias here is silly and misinformed. Its OK to bag on the French, but to carry it to an airplane that is built by a consortium of countries and carries a hell of a lot of American built parts is stupid.
Airbus makes good planes, Boeing makes good planes, Embraer makes good planes, they all compete and make each other better. My airline is going to be the launch customer of the A350, should be fun.
The A380 is a niche plane, they aren't being built to service every route in the world, just medium long range high density routes. The plane is being built primarily for the needs of Asian carriers that operate from slot controlled airports and for Middle Eastern carriers that can afford to outfit their cabins with extravagance that their customers will pay for. And it will be a hell of a good cargo plane. The A380 may not make a profit for a while, but hats off to Airbus for pushing the envelope and building it. Airbus makes its dough from the A318/319/320/330/340 aircraft.