Thursday, May 18, 2006

Airbus A380 - Concorde for the 21st century?

So the A380 has landed. I suspect that yet again, the European aeroplane manufacturers have got it wrong. In the 60's Concorde was the plane of the future at about the same time as Boeing came up with the 747.
Then the Concorde's proponents believed that speed of flight was all-important, and that customers wanted to get there faster; however Boeing got the bet right - with the oil crisis and the sheer cost of flights on Concorde the airlines went for volume (of passengers) instead of speed. Concorde languished as a rich man's toy. A crying shame as Concorde was gorgeous and it's disappearance from the skies should still be regretted.

Now in the 21st century Airbus believe passengers will be content to fly hub to hub, and then take connecting flights; whereas Boeing are betting the new 787 long range on passengers wanting to get to their destination in one hop Wiki reference. With the infrastructure changes necessary at airports to take the A380, it will never make it to smaller regional airports.

Having transferred flights a few times (and suffered the 'will my bags make it to the second plane' trauma) I'm firmly with Boeing on this one.
I think Airbus has made another Concorde decision, only this one has not even got the merit of being a fantastically wonderful design that changed the air industry.

and there's still a Concorde rusting at Bristol...

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