Airbus A380 completes historic 1st flight

Daytona Beach News-Journal Online ^ | April 27, 2005 | By LAURENCE FROST

[RedBloodedAmerican]

ping

[Sen Jack S. Fogbound]

You mean it didn't crash? Golly, gee whiz, shucks!

[RedBloodedAmerican]

That was my thought, too. Will this replace the Concorde?

[soccer_linux_mozilla]

posted previously

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Really? I did a search and no returns. Got a link??

[Rummyfan]

Rosay, co-pilot Claude Lelaie and four fellow crew members took no chances - donning parachutes for the first flight. A handrail inside the test plane lead from the cockpit to an escape door that could have been jettisoned had the pilots lost control.

If this baby crashes, it'll be like an asteroid hitting the earth!

[Centurion2000]

And terrorists around the world will want to bag one of these suckers.

I'm kind of amazed it didn't crash.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Oh, yep! Found it. I searched using 380 before posting. Found it using a380 this time. Thanks

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1391955/posts

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Duplicate posts are no longer a concern. Let me give you an example.

[blastdad51]

It bad enough trying to get off a 757 with 150 other grumpy passengers. Can you imagine what it will be like with 450-500 people on board!!!2/3s of them will be in a hurry to catch a connecting flight. I think once people see these as cattle cars, they're doomed.

[DTogo]

But Airbus has yet to prove that it can turn a profit on its investment, a third of which came from European governments.

I didn't know that mattered to Socialists.

[TXBSAFH]

That was my thought, too. Will this replace the Concorde?

As the poster plane for failed avaition ideas maybe. I do not thing this baby has much of a future besides cargo.

[boris]

They make great planes, as long as the tail fins stay attached...

[EQAndyBuzz]

Who is going to pay for the reconfiguration of airline gates to get these people on and off?

This plane will never touch down in the USA.

[ikka]

Part of the delay is down to the superjumbo's struggle with a weight problem that consumed months of engineering time and pushed the program's cost overrun to $1.88 billion.

Telling, and a point of weakness. Modern computer design programs can calculate the weight of the plane before it is built. They shaved some things down or re-engineered them after they already started building the plane. Look for precisely those areas that were re-designed to give maintenance problems in the future.

[Tacis]

And, just in time, too!! Now Chirac will be able to pick up 800 specially trained Jamaican, Haitian and Cuban multi-voters from Miami and fly them to many, many cities in France where they will be able to vote, well, multiple time, for the Eurinal Consitution! They don't call him "Lucky Jacques" for nothing!

[marshmallow]

Rosay, co-pilot Claude Lelaie and four fellow crew members took no chances - donning parachutes for the first flight. A handrail inside the test plane lead from the cockpit to an escape door that could have been jettisoned had the pilots lost control.

This bit cracked me up.

Is this common practice for test flights with commercial aviation airliners?

Seriously though, if the plane is OK and flies well, then jolly good luck to them.

I like 4 engine planes. The more engines the better, as far as I'm concerned.

[Steve_Seattle]

"But Airbus has yet to prove that it can turn a profit on its investment, a third of which came from European governments."

Someone needs to explain the WTO rules to me; American companies are fined if they get government favors, and it's called unfair competition, but here we have governments directly subsidizing Airbus. Maybe it's like the NBA, where Shaq can clear the lane with his fat ass, but if anyone puts a pinky on him when he goes up for a shot, it's a foul.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Wow, what a truly big airplane.