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."

Comments

American version

[AtariAmarok]

Where's the American version, that holds 400 jumbo passengers?

Re:American version

[NardofDoom]

Okay, let's cram you in a seat with six inches less legroom than you need for four hours with screaming children, crappy food and a worse movie and see how much you like it! After, of course, you're scrutinized like a criminal, forced to partially disrobe at a "security checkpoint" and herded through loading like an animal.

I hate flying.

Wings

[basingwerk]

The wings for this plane are so big that they are floated out to see on a huge barge down the Dee Estuary in Wales, and taken by ship to be assembled with the reat of the plane in Toulouse, France. On the way, the wings pass on a special vehicle through several hunred yards of farm land and cross a main road. Thise Europeans know how to do big engineering projects.

Re:Wings

[Eunuchswear]

Finally, Germany, France and Italy (of the countries that spring to mind) all recognise that their economies lose far too many days to unnecessary strikes,

The French economy, being effectively a union free zone, loses almost no days to strikes, necessary or not.

(There are a few days lost a year in the civil service, which is somewhat unionised.)

Some figures:

1. Days lost to strikes, 2000:
   

   Switzerland 0.38
   Japan 0.55
   Germany 1.41
   France 8.04
   UK 11.07
   Netherlands 15.31
   USA 19.04

   Working days lost per 1,000 inhabitants per year.

2. Unionisation:

   Germany 30%
   UK 29%
   USA 13%
   France 9%

   Table 1. Trade union density, Europe, Japan and USA

3. Unionisation in the private sector in France:

   State & local govt, public hospitals: 15.1%
   Nationalised companies, social security: 15.6%
   Private companies: 5.2%

   "myths & realities of unionisation in France" (in French, pdf

Some stats for the interested...

[Richard_at_work]

A A380-800 carrying 550 passengers costs $270million.
A 747-400 carrying 436 passangers costs $215million.
Both work out at roughly $0.5million per passenger.
The Airbus requires the same length runway to takeoff and land, but it requires wider runways. Most airports can take the A380 currently, with only some having to expand runways or taxiways to fit.

The 747-400 has a range of 14,205km, with a max fuel capacity of 63,700gallons.
The A380-800 has a range of 15,100km, with a max fuel capacity of 81,900gallons.

That gives the 747-400 a rate of 0.2km/g.
And the A380 a rate of 0.18km/g.

Or, based on passenger numbers, the 747-400 has a rate of 1.02 gallons of fuel per 100km per passenger. The A380 has a rate of 0.9 gallons of fuel per 100km per passenger. (work all that out myself, phew). This gives the Airbus a more efficient fuel cost when carrying a full passenger load.

The A380 will be used mainly on the longhaul hub routes, such as LA to Hongkong, London to Hongkong, London to Sydney, London to New York, New York to Hongkong etc. You will see it on other routes tho, its just as good for those.

So far Airbus have sold 139 A380-800 aircraft, half of what it needs to break even.

Re:Look forward to another round of US v EU

[dago]

This reminds me of an old Newsweek (europe) cover a few years ago, this was about Netherlands and sayed something like "Gay marriage, drugs, euthanasia : are the Netherlands showing the future of europe ?"

So, you can add those 3 things to your agenda, and also
- International Court of Justice
- landmine ban treaty
- America's cup 2007

Re:Enticing Terrorist Target

[Rolo Tomasi]

Just write on the side: If you blow one of these up, we'll make bombers out of the others.

Airbus is in trouble

[tzanger]

That google image link has Google textads for ebay... "Airbus A380 for sale. aff Check out the deals now! www.eBay.com" and "Low Priced Airbus A380 Huge Selection! (aff) ebay.ca"

Personally I find that frickin' hilarious.

Re:Fly where?

[stridebird]

It's a pronunciation problem that got out of hand...it's called the war on tourism.