Well Rainboe, I can tell from your pontificating tone that you are obviously right, so I guess I believe you. Wish I had a crystal ball like that! I don't have a "problem" with the 380, I just don't believe all the hype. I hope it's a grand ambassador for aviation and flies folks safely for many years. So far I'm not too impressed with it or the EADS philosphy of "flight by committee", or the Airbus fly by wire protocols. I think we've all heard the jokes and seen the videos of the snafu's with that! For the record, I have about 500 hours in Dassault products and think they are magnificent flying machines! I fly a Boeing on the weekdays and a Pitts on the weekends, with about 22K total time. WHoopee! That and $2.00 will get me a cup of coffee, maybe! I've had some memorable ldgs, who hasn't, and I'm gonna laugh WITH you about it!!! ('specially in the Pitts, yowww!)
Far as the "short field" aspect, that runway is a MILE AND A HALF long! There is also a video on youtube showing A-380 doing a "short field" ldg. Looks like a smoooooth touchdown to me! You want the truth? You can't HANDLE the truth! hehehehe! Guess theres gonna be a whole lotta airports having to completely rebuild themselves to accomodate that thing!