partying princes to London to there lose their religion
10,000 sf and $300 million.
My first thought was Al Gore. Not from the US might appear to rule him out, but I bet he considers himself a citizen of the world. Think of all those carbon credits....
Osama.
Certainly needs a lot of space.
http://usa-c295.com/blog/index.php?id=113
GAO: A380 too dangerous
May 7, 2007, 11:09 pm
The new Airbus A380 superjumbo is too dangerous for American airports.
That’s what the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in a new report. The GAO is the independent accounting arm of the US Congress. The new report says it will cost billions of dollars to upgrade American airports to accomodate the giant aircraft safely. Among GAO’s concerns, according to a summary by Bloggingstocks.com:
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Most U.S. runways were not built for planes of this size and weight, and will require an upgrade, service restrictions, or both.
* The increased turbulence it will create on landing and takeoff will mean a need for more buffer area around the plane to guard against impacting other flights.
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This could result in possible reduction in flights and therefore airport handling capacity.
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Its size will impose a large burden on fire and rescue operations.
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The cost of retrofitting airports to accommodate A-380 could be a problem. Heathrow in London has spent $885 million to prepare for the plane’s flights.
The title of the 72-page GAO report is Commercial Aviation: Potential Safety and Capacity Issues Associated with the Introduction of the New A380 Aircraft.
http://www.avantnews.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=309
“”We see the redesigned Airbus A380 as a new, really unusual vessel for use in transcontinental passenger carriage and sea freight,” Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airlines, said. Emirates Airlines has placed a new order for 40 seaborne Airbus A380s after initially canceling a similar order for the flying model in 2007 because the colors of the Superjumbo upholstery did not match Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum’s suits.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum says “about half” of the Airbus A380s will be used for transcontinental shipping, with the other half to be equipped as “winged, floating palaces” for recreational use.
“They will be nice when I and some of my friends are on vacation,” Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said. “The Business Class seats have very generous legroom.”
“
He needs the plane to fly from place to place making speeches about poor people and how to help them.
let’s see...
If you believe the Airbus sales literature, the thing uses about 2500 liters of fuel per 100 km, or about 658 gallons per 64 miles, which is about 10 gallons per mile. At $2 per gallon, that’s $20 per mile for fuel alone, not counting taxi time, carbon offset prices, taxes, etc. A thousand-mile trip would cost $20k in fuel.
Of course, we add in prices such as cost of capital, depreciation, maintenance, staffing, storage, airport fees...
Yeah, whomever bought this, or rents it from the purchaser, will have to bring a gold VISA card.
Sultan of Brunei
It would be really cool to put an swimming pool in a VIP A380.
My bet, John Travolta