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Airbus Launches 800 Passenger Jumbo Jet
voma writes "Airbus, the world's largest planemaker, will unveil its A380, a $16 billion wager that airlines will order giant aircraft to ferry passengers between major airports over the next 20 years. The double-decker A380 plane has a wing span of 80 meters (262 feet), almost the length of an American football field. It's 73 meters long and weighs as much as 569 tons (1.2 million pounds) when fully loaded for takeoff. It will have a range of 8,000 nautical miles."
Britain hardly conquered "the world". The just beat up some weak nigger countries, like the US does currently. Hardly an accomplishment.
And then it went all downhill because beating the Nazis with the rest of the world was too much effort for the little Brits. Awww!
Large passenger aircraft do not cruise on all their engines, typically. I've been on 747s with the jetstream going the right way that I swear were crossing the Atlantic on one engine. A four engine plane will not usually accumulate engine hours twice as fast as a 2 engine plane.
And, when crossing the Pacific, or the Arctic, how much do you want to rely on only 2 engines?
Back in the day of unreliable British motocycle engines, it was a great comfort to me that all the systems - ignition, carburetor - were duplicated on my Triumph Bonneville, because when the unreliable electrics packed up on one cylinder, or the carb got blocked, I could limp home on the other one. It's called redundancy, and when I'm in an airplane I like to have lots of it.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Why is it when Americans make big vehicles, we're fscking taken behind the woodshed and mocked and slapped....
but when the Euros do it - its the greatest thing evar?
oh wait... its kinda like getting your ass saved in a world war, then spitting on the graves of those that saved your ass a scant 40 years later.
wankers.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.