747Focal
I have it on good authority that EADS have indeed given pax evac a lot of thinking about, despite your obvious dislike of anything coming out of Toulouse.
1: The top part of the slides from the upperdeck will have sort of a roof on it, the purpose of which is to block the view to the bottom, thereby reducing the risk of vertigo.
2: The slides will be covered in a material designed to retard the "slide" gradually, so the pax won't arrive at the bottom at 30+ km/h, but at a rather more tolerable speed.
Unlike you, I have little in the way of doubt that Airbus have some very technical capable guys and gals on the payroll, and that they will indeed pull the evac test off. Will someone be injured during the test? Well, yes, but as you yourself say that happens on almost all tests. Finally, the slides are designed and built in the USA, by Goodrich if memory serves me right.
It's ugly as f., but this is the "base" version. It will in all likelihood be stretched and then it might, just might, become less revolting to behold. Anyway, it's built to make money not win beauty contests. Speaking of which, it would seem that Boeing has had to rethink the design of the 7E7 tail. Graceful as it might be, it offered less than optimum efficiency and as with all other things ruled by bean counters, style must give way to efficiency. Too bad, really, that tail does look rather cool.