Jackonicko,
I have to agree with you that nationalism doesn’t seem to be far below the surface in this argument. I do like the new Boeing aircraft, think it looks great, and will fly in uncongested airspace above the weather while in cruise.
I have tried to present a balanced argument as to why the fleet planners at airlines would not go for the new Boeing design as it would not deliver the profits to the airlines shareholders and perpetuate their job security.
Development cost for the A380 is estimated at $US10bn, the number of units forecast to be delivered is 500-1000 region. The forecasts market is for approximately 1332 airliners of 400 seats and above through to 2017, this would also include sales of B747s. The first engineering development work on the A380 commenced in June 1994, with first deliveries expected in early 2006.
I have heard rumors that the A380 will be constructed in the main by robots, and little if any use of rivets as fasteners. I understand a laser welding technique has been developed with save tones in fasteners alone.
Numerous design configurations were studied for the A380 and they gave serious consideration to a single deck aircraft which would have seated 12 abreast and twin vertical tails.
They settled upon a twin deck configuration, largely because of the significantly lighter structure required, the ability to use existing airport gates with little modification, and reuse many of the system concepts found on the A320/A330/A340.
The direct operating costs (DOC) per seat on the A380 are estimated to be 15% less than those for the 747-400 (I don’t know which engine configuration). The DOC is about 53% of the total operating costs.
The DOC includes crew, fuel, oil, lube, insurance, maintenance, depreciation, landing navigation and route charges.
