My intuition tells me that in order to increase their share of the market Airbus was forced to explore new areas, hence new and greather risk.
In stead of using the FBW to improve on performance they concentrated on the flight control laws, affecting the pilots more than payload.
Once they found the money to finance it there was no way back.
We will see how big a gamble the A 380 will turn out to be.
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Smooth Trimmer
[This message has been edited by Streamline (edited 06 June 2001).]