A340
Retrofit all 200/300 with 600 engines. Simple!!!
Best part of that plan would be making all 340's look like proper aeroplanes instead of some drawing board scale nightmare!
Any plans Mr. Airbus???
Interesting to know from you Virgin Jocks how much better the 600 climbs than the 200/300.
The A340-600 is how it's mean't to look whereas the the first attempt looks as though some influence from the IL86 design bureau had crept in.
Incidently, climbing out of Manchester on the Sabre 727 a few years back brought similar frustrations from ATC. Max TOW, full tanks, 187 pax. Even with JT8-17 power gave Cessna 150 climb rates (if you were lucky). Pulling back to 1.65 EPR for noise abate left you with that sinking feeling! Block heights? Sorry Mr. ATC, won't quite make those in time!
So your frustration is nothing new. Just hope those A380 donks have enough suck and blow to lift that small town off the ground with some decent ROC!
Coop & Bear