Hey dont forget that it has British wings!!!!!Yes I agree its the ugliest airliner I've ever seen but its gonna do its pax & cargo-haulin' job well! Those engines are huuuuuuuge...are they as big as the engines on a 777?

In the 50`s, the Bristol Airplane Company (who have evolved into the the BAe part of the EADS consortium) developed an aircraft called the Brabazon. It was planned as the big Transatlantic luxury liner of the skies. It could be seen as not dissimilar to the A380 in its position in that market at the time. It had the following parallels to the A3801) It was a very large scale proposal for an existing long haul route.2) It was an extrapolation of existing design concepts and represented merely a scaling up of old design ideas.3) It had last-generation power plants - i.e turboprobs with contra props - lots of complexity for minimal gain; technology which was fast being superseded by turbojets at the timeThe Brabazon was a flop. It cost BAC a fortune and never reached full certification. No sales for BAC. Whilst I would like to see the A380 do well, and it is an amazing aircraft simply because of its scale, I fear it could easily go the same way as the Brabazon. The Brabazon was killed by the sudden success of the jet engine in transport aircraft, the A380 may just be killed by virtue of the reduction in travel following 9/11 and the fact that there is barely enough market for two big boys in the commercial airliner market.My degree was in Air Transport Engineering. The A380 is one project that would be giving me ulcers if I was on the technical team. That said, I can`t wait to see it fly..Similar skepticism was directed at the 747 programme and that 'didn`t do too bad'!! Cheers allRottenlungs

>WRONG FORUM>>Michael J.>Sorry you are mistaken- This is a NEW forum NOW- that is one that is friendly, curtious, and full of POSITIVE information. I could add more and feed on that comment, but WHY?Anyhow, A380 looks massive and can't wait to see one in reality! Wonder how many airports can facilitate this beast?

Airbus is the No1 aircraft company now, with a 57% share of the market last year, I am fairly sure that they wouldnt plough so much money into a "white elephant", also a fair few number of carriers have signed up for it, so hopefully it will be a success.Certainly going to be an awesome sight when it takes to the sky for real, its a huge beast of a thing, not inherently "pretty", but it might grow on you!!!.Dan.

>I am fairly sure that they wouldnt>plough so much money into a "white elephant", also a fair few>number of carriers have signed up for itDo you know how much money was "ploughed" into the concorde. from a sales point of view, it was a flop.

Well, anyway, since the now aging 747-400 is popular in super dense seating configurations around Asia the A380 should at least have a market there. It'll be interesting to see how it does in other markets, but I think that most of the high density routes between the top ten international hubs should be realistic candidates for the 380 as the airports get more and more congested. >Do you know how much money was "ploughed" into the concorde.>from a sales point of view, it was a flop.But that project was also about national prestige in a cold war climate. Projects of its kind are not undertaken anymore, even the millitary have to watch the costs these days.-

Concorde technology was transferred to other more average aircraft as well so it was definiatly a success. Just look at it

http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.php?id=293951regards,Mark3.2HT/1GIG/X700pro256=> 15fps mostmaxed

Hey All,Man that thing is huge! And I see Canada was in on the engineering too - looks like the back is held together by duct tape! :-hah Take Care! -Ed-

Max. profit.JimCYWG

Much as I am big fan of Concorde, and grew up within earshot of the testflights at Filton in the UK, it can`t really be considered the safest aircraft; a hull loss record of 1 in 14 is not great, although hull losses is only one means of evaluating safety. On hull losses the 777 and the A340 are neck and neck with zero. Yes, the 9/11 effect will pass, but the timing was inopportune for the A380 sales programme..Cheers

>>A major accomplishment in aviation, but d@mn that thing is UGLY.>>Looks like a B-36 with passengers. Besides. Its french. No thank >>you.Wrong, wrong and wrong: it's not French, it's a European project (remember, the German are just as involved as the French, the british industry provides the wing, there are many more examples , as it is a european project. Besides, it's got part from other parts of the world too (from the US, and probably from Asia too).Regards,Francois

The ceremony will last an hour and a half. The schedule for tomorrow is:(times are GMT) 07:30 Joint press conference with No

>And I see Canada was in on the engineering too - looks like the back is held together by duct tape!http://www.hifisim.com/images/as2betateam.jpg

Airbus just updated their page, and there's a link for the LIVE VIDEO, that will start in the morning