Free Republic

Airlines, it turns out, prefer the fuel efficiency of smaller planes like the Boeing 777 to the pack-em-in capacity of the Airbus A380. As a result, Airbus hasn’t scored any new orders for an A380 in more than a year. Its big plan to turn things around? Launch a new version, make it cheaper to fly, and slap on some winglets. This week at the Paris Air Show, Airbus announced the revamped “A380plus,” a refresh that packs even more passengers into the super-jumbo and tweaks the wing design. The upswept winglets found on most modern airliners boost fuel efficiency by...

The Airbus A380 has long been expected to steal this year's Paris Air Show. It will be the public debut of the world's biggest plane at the world's biggest air show, at none other than Le Bourget, one of the world's most storied airfields. Paris in June will be all about one airplane. Or will it? Facing a breakneck test flight program to get the A380 certified and the first plane delivered to Singapore Airlines in the second quarter of 2006, Airbus claims it has not decided on its plans for the A380 at the air show. "It remains to...