Boeing’s biggest-ever plane makes maiden flight

Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal ^ | March 21, 2011

[ConservativeStatement]

Boeing Co.’s newest 747 passenger jet, the largest commercial plane it has ever built, took to the skies for the first time Sunday, marking the third maiden flight of a new Boeing commercial airplane in the past 15 months. (See video)

Painted in its orange and red “sunrise” livery, the massive, four-engine 747-8 Intercontinental lifted off from Paine Field, north of Seattle, at 10 a.m. local time under partly cloudy skies and gusty northerly winds. At 250 feet long, the 747-8 is 18 feet longer than its predecessor.

[LIBERTARIAN JOE]

If you can make the wings of the 380 out of carbon fiber, you can make other wings for other aircraft using a similar process. This makes future designs more cost effective

If I recall correctly, the technology for constructing large aircraft out of carbon fiber was developed in the US for the B-2 bomber. Boeing's 787 used this method long before Airbus.

Like I said, Airbus is a jobs program. Take away backing by the european taxpayers and Airbus would have gone out of business 30 years ago. They do a fair job of constructing aircraft using technology developed here over the last 50 years, but that's all.