AMEN!Jaap Verduijn.

>quite frankly, as an aviation buff who appreciates ANY feat of aviation engineering, I am SICK TO DEATH of it!Yes exactly, AMEN!Wolfgang

I think this is a wonderful event for avaition, and just think about what the pilots must of felt when this baby took to the skies, and came down perfect.I watching on the BBC and when it landed a guy from "Janes" when asked what he thought of the landing answered "errr well there was some blue smoke from the tyers, but erm thats ok"Whats wrong with blue smoke?????Jason

Just watched the footage at the Airbus site (thanks Avsim for the news and links..I'd not been aware of today being the day she finally flies...oops!).Marvellous! What a majestic sight... She looks too big to be allowed, yet she takes to the air as though 400 tonnes is nothing!! Beautiful. What more can be said?

To Bob 'if it ain't Boeing I'm not going'Can I ask, if you were going on holiday,turned up at the airport and your flight was an Airbus, would you just turn round and go home??Just curious..Ian

Very impressive, but pug ugly if you ask me :) Anyway, I'm glad there is further competition in the long haul sector industry now. This is the second jolt Airbus has fired into the industry. Boeing appear very unconfident with the uncommittal vision of the 787, but ultimately, for long haul, the bigger the better when static and admin costs per flight are increasing year after year.

>Boeing appear very unconfident with the>uncommittal vision of the 787,What ???? Unconfident, uncommmittal ? Are you hallucinating ? Do you follow business news at all ? Check the last huge order (last 48 hours) from Air India and Air Canada for long range wide-body aircraft - together they ordered nwearly 150 aircraft - ALL 777 and 787.So far 787 sells like a hot cake where the sale of A380 is stuck at the same number for over a year. Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2

Why don't some of you grow up and stop this pathetic Airbus vs Boeing bickering?!

Did you see the recent article in Aviation Week and Space Technology about the 787? Lots of completely new technology I wasn't aware of. Cabin pressurization is being supplied by electric-motor driven compressors instead of engine bleed air. No one's done that before. Anti-ice and de-ice is all electric except for engine inlets. There are other electric systems that I don't recall at the moment. Each engine will have two huge electric generators spinning. The whole aircraft will be generating something like 1000 Kva of power. It's going to be a flying Hoover Dam!

>I work with people that fly commercially for a living on a>regular basis. Not one of my co-workers, when the subject is>mentioned, is showing the slighest interest in flying on the>A-380.I think that the majority of passengers are not really interested in what aircraft they are flying, they just choose the flight that is most convenient or cheapest or gives them the most frequent flyer points or whatever. Especially the female half of the population doesn't care. Even cabin fittings within the same type of aircraft can make a bigger difference from a passenger view than two different aircraft. And long distance travel can be just awful even on a smaller jet. The airport is probably a more important factor than the aircraft. -

Calm down dear. It isn't dig - LOL! Frankly, Airbus' A380 vision is singular, bigger and further. The 787, regardless of what the brochure says, has a broader scope of viable distances and simply won't do what the A380 is meant to do better. That by any other definition is edging yout bets. Airlines will also be edging their bets on where they think they can get the competative edge. But it doesn't matter how you look at it, if moving people around long distances cheaply in big numbers and fewer flights is what makes more money than fewer people over more flights and a wider scope of distances then Airbus get the share, if not Boeing do. But Airbus have gone for the jugular, it is a gamble.See what I mean now?

It about isn't Airbus vs Boeing. It debating the opposing visions. If you don't like a debate then go and be grown up somewhere else.

I wonder if it has more comfortable seats than thenorm, for long-haul.Peter Sydney Australia

Is:"can't wait for 2006 when Boeings arse is kicked"and"If it ain't Boeing, I'm not going"a debate or even opposing visions?

Depends how sensitive you are I guess. If you choose to ignore or add humour (not my cup of tea) it is a debate, if you don't its a cat fight. Ahh! The simple choices that make life so exciting :)