Posted on 10/30/2007 6:12:28 AM PDT by WesternCulture
As my taxi pulled up at Changi airport, I knew this was going to be a special day - the day of the first A380 commercial flight was finally here.
The airport had long been adorned with banners and posters declaring Singapore "A380 ready" and anticipating the flight.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
You know something else....
On my July trip through CDG, I was “waived” through.
My wife wanted a french stamp and after asking, she got it. I have had to get pages added to my passport
Knowingly blowing money for national pride and bragging rights isn't a bad thing, like with the Concorde or us going to the Moon. Accidentally blowing money because you screwed things up, like with the A380, is not quite so good.
“I have to add to your list one of the greatest Swedish products adopted for use by the United States Armed Forces: the Bofors 40mm cannon (AKA ‘pom-pom’).
Now that is what I call a kick-ass weapon system. Simple, deadly, modular, and enduring. It’s the B-52 of defense weaponry.”
- Bofors and The US Army have a long tradition of cooperation.
Another example is this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gustav_recoilless_rifle
During the Vietnam war, our hypocrite government energetically criticized The US and their allies while simultaneously supplying them with tons of this weapon.
Today, the Vietnam War is over, but the cooperation between Bofors and The US continues:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM982_Excalibur
I respectfully disagree on the grounds that there is nothing harmless about a PC organization.
You can count me as one freeper who actually likes France and spent a lot of time there and their former Americas colony Haiti.
Nearly all of Europe is leftist by our standards but some have more appreciation for their native culture. I like that.
(part Huguenot)
If pigs flew, they'd be cleaner, and you wouldn't have to wade through the whiny brats and bums drinking Old Spice to get to one.
I made up my mind after my last domestic flight that I will never ride another strato-cattlecar again. I'll get my pilot's license and fly solo, thank you very much. No brats, no TB carriers, and no rude stewardesses, no 10-dollar twinkies, and no camelhumpers with boxcutters. And if I prang the sucker, it's my own damn fault.
Here's something interesting: for a neutral country, Sweden has produced some awesome weapons systems: Saab's Draken, their Viggen (dang, that sucker was LOUD), the Gripen, the Bofors 40mm cannon, the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle, the XM982...
It makes me wonder... What would happen if you guys got pissed off enough to go to war?
You guys make some darn good firepower.
TOYOTA market cap. 138.800 M US$
Daimler 79.9 M US$
Volkswagen 68.5 M US$
Honda 46.5 M US$
Nissan 35.5 M US$
Renault 32.9 M US$
BMW 29.5 M US$
Ford 24.3 M US$
FIAT 23.9 M US$
DENSO 22.8 M US$
Johnson Controls 19.8 M US$
Continental 15.8 M US$
General Motors 15.0 M US$
Airbus is not only French.
- Good point. In general they do a lot of harm, but what I had in mind in this case is that there are many PC organizations who do little else than produce tons of sweet sounding drivel that has very little impact on the world outside their own little tribe.
In the case of EUnic, most Europeans, whether they are Socialists, Liberal or Conservative, agree cultural exchange between our nations is a good thing, but I think a lot of us doubt that granting a yearly €2.2 billion to yet another superfluous organization is the best way of making Europeans discover the cultures of the other European countries.
These €2.2 would probably do a a lot more of good for European integration if any EU citizen could apply for a free plane or rail ticket to any destination within the EU and then you’d have a computer program simply run a lottery.
Nearly all of Europe is leftist by our standards but some have more appreciation for their native culture. I like that.”
- To begin with, you can count me as one European who likes the US!
At least over here in Europe, I guess most people associate Haiti with violence, lack of a functioning democracy and so on, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there also are a lot of nice things about Haiti that are seldom reported on.
I agree many Europeans often display appreciation for their
native culture. This is especially true when it comes to Southern Europe, but I’d say they have inspired us Northern Europeans to get more in touch with OUR OWN native culture.
I’ve become more European since Sweden entered the EU in 1995, but I’ve also become more Swedish (which is not due to the EUrocrats but thanks to traveling in Europe and being confronted with the many different local and regional cultures of the continent, something which has made me reflect upon what is typically Swedish, what my country is good at and how we can contribute to a better Europe).
Greetings to Tennessee from Sweden!
- Yes, I remember all the snickering here at FR when these problems delayed the A-380 delivery schedule. However, I read the other day that Boeing has also experienced unexpected delays with the Dreamliner completion schedule. Something about subcontractors unable to meet delivery deadlines.
How about a British / Italian helicopter for the President to fly in?
- This is, of course, true. During both world wars and the Cold War as well, Sweden relied mainly on domestically developed and produced weapons.
In today’s globalized world, our arms industry has become more integrated with American, British and other European companies in this business. For instance, there have been several different mergers and projects of cooperation between British BAE, Swedish Bofors and Swedish SAAB (most people associate SAAB with cars but SAAB Automobile - which was bought by GM - was just a division of SAAB). Another example is of course the XM982 Excalibur missile which is the result of a American-British-Swedish cooperation.
As a Swede, I look forward to continued collaboration with USA in this field.
“It makes me wonder... What would happen if you guys got pissed off enough to go to war?”
- Some years ago, Sweden in fact had one of the world’s strongest armies measured in mobility times firepower. During the end of the Cold War, We could’ve mobilized around 1 million men. Add the production capacity in terms of military equipment of a very diversified and highly productive industry (that could’ve produced tons of artillery, submarines, tanks, fighter planes etc) to this and you naturally get a war machine with ability to inflict even more harm than many larger industrially developed countries. One basic aspect is that we have a lot of industry like steel works and automotive industry (and not only cars, Sweden is one of the world’s largest producers of heavy trucks and buses, meaning we could easily transform these plants a bit and start producing a lot of tanks if we wished to)
By today we have downsized our armed forces, but we still got a lot of competence in the area of defense. However, I think one of the reasons why our present Conservative government keep cutting the defense budget is they want Sweden to join the NATO.
It will probably happen sooner or later.
Best of regards!
“I think it’s safe to say that France evidently has a lot of competent engineers.”
Well, good for you Westernculture. You just get your biddy on that plance and fly, fly, away. Oh, btw, have you by chance ever heard of a plane of the name “Comet”? Check it out...
“Yes, I remember all the snickering here at FR when these problems delayed the A-380 delivery schedule. However, I read the other day that Boeing has also experienced unexpected delays with the Dreamliner completion schedule. Something about subcontractors unable to meet delivery deadlines.”
- Personally, I’m convinced both the A-380 and the Dreamliner will be successful in the end. A lot of aeoroplanes have faced huge intitial difficulties, that’s nothing new.
What we should do on both sides of the Atlantic is to continue pushing the limits.
“Airbus is not only French.”
- 100% correct.
Actually, Airbus is part American.
Airbus is just a subsidary of EADS, a merger between Aérospatiale-Matra of France, Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) of Spain, and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) of Germany.
Therefore, Airbus is French-Spanish-German-American.
“Oh, btw, have you by chance ever heard of a plane of the name “Comet”?”
- de Havilland Comet????
- I agree. Boeing has staked it’s future on a smaller, more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly aircraft that can carry up to 300 passengers on medium to long haul routes, while Airbus sees a future for a long haul aircraft than can carry up to 800. I think that both will find a market but the limitations on the A380 are greater since it’s need for bigger airports and the strain it will put on terminal check in’s, security procedures, holding room capacity and wait times might make it unacceptable to large numbers of the flying public.
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