Airbus' A380 is a huge jet, but lacks 747's glamour

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | Last updated April 6, 2007 3:35 p.m. PT | CHRISTINE NEGRONI

[onedoug]

Except for the B-1B.

[cpdiii]

Puking Dog

Do you have any numbers on seat mile fuel burn of the A380 as compared to Boeings 787 Dreamliner?

[Paleo Conservative]

Karl, I think these airlines are trying to figure out ways to fill these planes, and they are obviously worried that they won’t be able to, thus the tactic of not pushing the plane to its highest capacity. I think they’d rather have passengers more comfortable than fly with empty seats, particularly since comfort might be a competitive advantage.

But the passengers that matter most to airlines are flying business or first class anyway. Those seats are just as comfortable on an A330, A340, 787, 777, or 747. Given equal comfort levels, scheduling is more important than the size of the aircraft. Two 787's can carry the same number of passengers as one A380 while carrying over three times the revenue cargo and having more flexibility in scheduling.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

And will continue to for decades to come with the next generation 747-8 which already has orders for both the passenger and freighter versions. Truely the queen of the skies.

[phantomworker]

One of my favorite videos:

747/777 Crosswind

Something just doesn't look right here:

A380 Crosswind

Or here!

LAX Landing

[Paleo Conservative]

Do you have any numbers on seat mile fuel burn of the A380 as compared to Boeings 787 Dreamliner?

Supposedly two 787-10's (the 787-10 hasn't been launched yet) would have slightly more passengers while having lower CASM and more cargo. One 787-10 would have about 1.8 times more revenue cargo than an A380. Having two decks full of passengers with baggage eats into the space available for cargo.

[Paleo Conservative]

Or here!

LAX Landing

The pilot sure used a lot of rudder on that landing. I see what you mean about yaw on landing.

[Pukin Dog]

Its 'Pukin' It aint poor English like this sentence.

The Dreamliner blows everything away in terms of seat-mile costs. The A-380 gets its efficiency from stuffing it with people like a cattle car. It really isn't very efficient at all.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

How about this plane ?

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.

[Little_shoe]

WOW... I can only imagine what it looked like from the cockpit.

[Calvin Locke]

Can the landing gear be adjusted help compensate for landing in strong crosswinds?

I think the B-52's can turn up to 15 degrees off center.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

That’s why they provide barf bags for the pilots.

[RunningWolf]

I think it is inherent and deeply embedded in Boeing to design towards the cruise and Boeing knows how to the most out of that regime of flight.

IMO it shows in the airplanes such as the 747-400, 777, and even more so for the 787 and the SuperSonic Cruiser (if they ever build it)

[FreeManWhoCan]

I cant wait for the dreamliner to arrive in MIA. What a beautiful plane! Try to get the screensaver from Boeing.com of the dreamliner. Beautiful! I will never, ever set foot on a A380. They might as well just name them Flying Titanics.

[RunningWolf]

I heard this one story and I don't know if it was an urban legend or not, but a pilot had made a really hard landing and during departation of the plane no one said a word to him about it until and 80’sh year old woman asked if they were they shot down on the way in :-)

I was on a really hard one back in 1988 or and I wont blame it on the pilot it was just one of those things. We were coming into Denver and in that last 50’ or so a huge gust of wind picked the airplane up and then the bottom dropped out. I was like %^$## here it comes! I was seated over the center wing box area and as hard as we hit (KWHAM!!) I knew there was bound to be a few fuel leaks to come out of that later, and maybe some broken fasteners to be found during HMV open up.

[RunningWolf]

Oh I forgot, that was a 727-200 (stretch) airplane we were on.

[Paleo Conservative]

My favorite plane of all time. It especially looked good in Braniff’s liveries.

[RunningWolf]

Yes it did.

I wish they had made it. One of their very top people taught one of my airline mgt courses and I learned more from him and that one course than some multiple (3, 4, 5?) of what other courses were brought to me.

Not for him, but for another course I did a study paper on the topic of age 60 mandatory retirement for Pilots.

I know you career pilot guys wont like my answer, but my conclusion was that while there are exceptions, overall it is correct policy esp when the exponentially raising probability of stroke/heart attack occurring becomes a factor.

[Little_shoe]

I knew I used to carry a ziplock bag in the top part of my Gsuit when I was doing flight school. The only thing that could shake up my stomach like nothing out was spinning the airplane.

[MistrX]

Can the landing gear be adjusted help compensate for landing in strong crosswinds? I think the B-52's can turn up to 15 degrees off center.

I believe the 747 gear also compensates.