Did anyone else witness this beauty lift off for the first time today from Toulouse. I wish I had been there.

>Did anyone else witness this beauty lift off for the first>time today from Toulouse. I wish I had been there. Yup! I sure did. The Captain said it was like 'riding a bycyle.' Or something to that affect. There were only 6 crew, but that they were still riding an 800,000 lb bycyle!

it was actually more than those 800.000 lbs, 421 tons TOW to be exact. It was simply stunning.CheersHolger

I beleive that breaks the record for the heaviest passenger aircraft to take to the sky. I liked the way one of the guys said 421 tons was "peanuts" compared to what it can do (560 ton). Just out of interest, what is the Max Take-off Weight for the 744ER?Cheers,Steve.

>Just out of interest, what is the Max Take-off Weight for the>744ER?I think for 747-400F (freighter) it is very close to 900,000 lbs.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

Europeans waving goodbye to their tax dollars :-wave http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Componen..._hmed_3a.h2.jpg

LOL! Yeah imagine what Boeing could do if they were subsized by 10 countries' tax dollars...

>LOL! Yeah imagine what Boeing could do if they were subsized>by 10 countries' tax dollars...No need to guess...http://www.boeing.com/news/feature/concept/flash.html/sebastian

>Europeans waving goodbye to their tax dollars :-wave Fortunately our currency in Europe called EURO not Dollar! ___________________________Best Regards,Bodo M

To those who constantly like to bash Airbus for their amazing achievment you could certainly take a leaf out of this fine gentleman's book:http://www.boeing.com/randy/archives/2005/...bird_aloft.htmlThe rivalry only exists at level of the so called "supporters" of the company, fact is at company level we have nothing but the utmost respect for each other.Regards

Hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!

>The rivalry only exists at level of the so called "supporters">of the company, fact is at company level we have nothing but>the utmost respect for each other.When you say "WE" does it mean YOU work for Boeing?It seems it is one thing to admire A380's maiden flight as all aviation lovers probably do (including Boeing) and completely different thing to be scornful of Airbus' business practices - it is actually Boeing who has been pushing US government to take Airbus before the WTO court. So yes, there is an exceedingly strong 'rivalry' between the two outfits and one could only recall John's Leahy - Airbuses' top salesman remarks about Boeing uttered in the last 2 years. I wish I could quote them here - certainly they are anything but respectful comments. Harry Stonecipher had some strong comments of his own. So sugar coating the whole affair is not going to make some basic facts go away.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

> When you say "WE" does it mean YOU work for Boeing?Sorry I mean to say I work for Airbus.With regard to the business practices, you can't lose sight of the fact that the companies are in competition, every Airbus sale is a Boeing loss and vice versa. They must therefore do whatever is in their power to prevent their competitors from expanding. As you say this is a business practice. Marketing and business is as far as it will go. From an employee perspective there is no hatred or rivalry only respect. Bottom line is: business is business, it will always be dirty. As far as the rest of us are concerned we can enjoy both sets of aircraft for what they are; wonderful feats of engineering.I doubt that I have convinced you of this but you'll agree this conversation is better suited to another forum?

>From an employee>perspective there is no hatred or rivalry only respect. Ok, I buy that. :)Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg