A delay I'm afraid

Reuters has this ......

April 4, 2005
The maiden flight of Airbus new aircraft, the A380, will be delayed, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Monday.

The paper quoted a company spokeswoman saying that pilots would test the plane this week.

EADS's co-head Rainer Hertrich said in March the maiden flight was originally scheduled for the start of April.

After the system and mechanical tests, acceleration and braking tests on the runway would be held prior to the first flight, Handelsblatt said, adding that experts felt it would take at least two more weeks for these tests to be done.

The paper said the spokeswoman did not give a fresh launch date for the aircraft. It quoted her saying that it was immaterial whether the aircraft had its first flight on April 10, 15 or 23 given it was to be sold the next 35 years.

(Reuters)

When you think about it the lady is right, what does a few extra days or even weeks matter if the aircraft is going to be around for years?

Wish the same could apply to marriage !

*Off topic*

I'm no Boeing fan really (give me a VC10 anyday) but that A380 really is one ugly son-of-a-b. Our airports are going to be clogged up with 'em.

What was that old adage of if it looks right etc? The Phantom might have looked like wings were on upside down but at least it looked kind of menacing. The A380 just looks like it's a salad dodger. Kind of an aerial version of Johnny Vegas.


Carry on....

Reverserunlocked, I have long maintained that the "If it doesn't look right it shouldn't be flying", should be applied to cabin crew recruitment. Especially, when it comes to the salad dodging variety.

Please, Airbus fans, don't bite my head off for asking the following, but has anyone else heard RUMOURS (note the name of this website) that the 380 failed some major test in the last fortnight, putting the whole program on its proverbial back foot? The following quote, unconfirmed, comes from the email a friend passed me a day or two ago.

Was it posted by "IhateAirbus" or some equally impartial observer?
And the relevance to the first flight is.....? It looks just like any other commercial jet, just bigger. If you get picky over aircraft through looks, you need to get out more!

At the end of the day, it's a short delay. Only newsworthy because of the aircraft and the "ain'tBoeingnotGoing" brigade.

Well, no-one seemed concerned when I was at Toolooze last week - they knew that the first flight would be delayed slightly, but there were no show-stopping snags that they knew of.

And yes, it's hardly the prettiest aeroplane there is, I agree. It's very clever - but it isn't Concorde.

I wonder if others would agree that the A380's currently perceived "unloveliness" is actually because it is TOO SHORT?!

Like many of its famous forebears, it is starting its life just a smidgeon stumpy in the fuselage department. Soon however the brightest of the best from GE, RR and P&W will come along bearing gifts of more powerful and frugal engines, whereupon the CAD in Toulouse will crank out not a short ugly duckling but the most beautifully extended swan. Think of what happened to DC4/6/7, Viscount, 737, 767, 777, VC10 over the years, where stubby little runts were transformed into epitomies of aerial grace by the addition of several well-placed frames. So come on some Photoshop whizz out there: show us what it could/should be like!

Incidentally, how many airliners actually got shorter than their prototype over time? I can think of 747>SP, L1011>500, but does A320>319>318 count?

Incidentally a mole in Toulouse told me this morning that the A380 formally passed to Airbus "essai en vol" yesterday for ground trials, designed to be a minimum of four days prior to earliest first flight. Sounds a smidgeon optimistic to me, I must say.......

Ok here are the requested "photoshopped" images of the stretched A380.

Original
Stretched
Emirates A380-900

I think the stretched version will look far more appealing.

Brilliant, well done AceDispatcher.

Voila la cygne!

Now, about those evacuation tests.......

Pretty..

I would imagine that Airbus will bust a gut to get the thing flying in time for the Paris Airshow, if only to display the aircraft statically.

Seloco

The A330 originally came out with a -300 and then later with the shorter fuselage -200

I work for Airbus engineering and do not know of any show stopping snag and in fact just after the roll-out there was a message on the internal web-site dispelling just these type of rumours!
MK

That is one fine looking aeroplane! Where does the 'ugly' rumour come from? Learn to love it Baby- you will fly for many hours on this beast- it's gonna be just great!

Seloco, didn't the 707 get shortened into the 720 and another sub-series (707-138?) for Qantas? One of the latter is being checked at Southend to see if it is restorable for Qantas

Well, I think that the first flight of the A380 Megabus is going to be quite something! Best wishes to all involved and hope that it goes smoothly.

And a chum of mine who flies the A340-600 for Virgin Atlantic is probably going to be one of the first A380 pilots for the UK's flag carrier, the lucky so-and-so!

If you ask me the 747 is no beauty with that forward bulge. However, that doesn't mean it isn't a great airplane. As for the 380, I think it looks just fine.

Tricky one that, Ozplane! I guess it depends on whether you count the 367-80 as the B707 prototype - in which case at 39m length it was still shorter than the 41.5m 707-138 - or the first 707-120 as the prototype, in which case you are right, as it was, at 44m length, indeed longer than the -138.

and Cejkovice:

I think you have a point there concerning the A330! Although I cannot recall now whether the A340-300 flew before or after the -200 - what was prototyping what in this case?

I really must look out that anorak somewhere........

Even the short stumpy one looks quite appealing to me






Am I odd for thinking that?