A380:
The A380 program has been one of the biggest failures in recent memory.
A possible issue was that unlike the 747, the A380 wasn't designed from the get-go as a freighter. It's ancient history, but when the 747 was designed, everyone thought that SSTs would have the long-haul passenger markets by the late 1970s. Even after the twinjets have obliterated the passenger-carrying market, the 747 soldiers on, trash-hauling. Nearly fifty years on, 747s are still rolling off the production line.
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3 comments:
Very cool. Seems as though passenger aircraft have gotten as big as they're going to get. I thought FEDEX had a passing interest
in a cargo A380.
Excellent point, and the 380s are being dumped due to cracked wings and NOT earning out... MAJOR failure.
My 747 stories:
When I was a controller in ZJX (Jacksonville) I was talking on the line to a ZMA (Miami) guy who said he'd been over to the (nearby) airport to see the first one to arrive at MIA. I asked him how big it was, and he replied, "imagine the biggest thing you can—it's bigger than that."
A year or two later, Delta had just taken delivery of their first one. I was working JAX High and saw the flight plan on the Delta 747 coming from ATL to JAX. It was nearly time to go home and I got relieved from position. I ran outside just in time to see the 74 go overhead (the center underlies J45, the airway from ATL to JAX) about 6 or 7,000.
I signed out, got in my car and hightailed it down to JAX (took about 20 minutes) where I was let up into the tower (professional courtesy). The 74 was doing touch and goes and looked impossibly large for the width of the runway, and impossibly slow for a jet in the pattern. I probably there for an hour.
Over the years I worked hundreds of them, flew FAM trips on a couple, and therein lies another story. Bride and I took a trip out to DEN with our newborn. We went out on a DC-10 and came back on a 74. I asked the captain if I could check on my wife and baby (downstairs, remember) and he said I'll have the stew (as we called them—FA nowadays) bring them up. From probably LBF (North Platte) to DBQ (Dubuque) we had the upper lounge to ourselves where Mom was free to nurse whenever she wanted and we sat and relaxed in stretched out luxury.
One other remarkable thing about them. The engines, when the A/C is low and below 250 Kts, have a distinctive whine to them. They almost sound like reciprocating engines, but then you look up and see aluminum overcast. No other airplane sounds like that.
A great, great airplane.
LRod
ZJX, ORD, ZAU retired
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