Have read a report that Airbus are saying sometime next week.

FF A380
 

Seloco,

you should absolutely not believe anything your TLS source says. Such a statement can only come from a severe lack of information.
NO FF THIS WEEK.

nuff said.

Sorry Kuningen but I still think you're missing the point. You can't write a balanced perspective about a biased analysis. The Times wasn't trying to write a balanced article about the aircraft - in which case your complaint would be justified - it was writing a balanced article about the American report into the aircraft. There's a subtle difference.

It's not the Times' job to refute the report. It's Airbus' because they built the bloody thing. The paper simply has a duty to state clearly what the source of the information is - which it did - and let its readers decide whether they want to believe the stuff which the US has churned out or not. I think any suggestion that the readers are too dumb to work out that there might be a hint of sour grapes or biased assessment in an American report into the A380 is highly insulting.

If Alex Ferguson says that Arsenal is a crap team, do you really need it explaining to you that he might not be entirely independent? Do you really need an equal number of sentences from Arsene Thingy to make sure your poor readers aren't misled? Tripe.

As for Airbus needing time to read the report before commenting, that's just rubbish. Airbus is quite capable of reeling out a shedload of rent-a-quote, feel-good comments about the A380 at the drop of a hat. If they chose not to take a spoon-fed opportunity to redress the balance a bit, having been handed it by a Times reporter, more fool them.

Surely the people who Airbus really want to know about the aircraft already do know whether it is a good product or not - they've been briefing airlines, investors, banks et al for years about it. Why should they really care what the great unwashed think (alright, Times readers might wash sometimes)?

Read all about it:

http://www.speednews.com/A380-CPA.pdf

How a Boeing report on Airbus can be considered a "bombshell" is a bit over the top.

Definitely an oxymoron, just like "US Intelligence" in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.

Time has come to review the credibility of the so called expert opinions coming out of the US I think, and not only with regards to Airbus, the market leader in civil aviation!

Besides, who cares what Boeing thinks about Airbus, or Airbus about Boeing, or who is market leader? The important thing is that we all have one or the other to fly and get to make MONEY.

From the report:

Is some of the most laughable justification for the 7E7 I've seen. These academics seem to think the entire world has airport's the size of Texas. How are BA or LH going to justify adding a low-yield service from Bumfu*k, Indiana to their major, heavily slot congested hub?

I mean, really!

If you read through the report [ok it's 99 pages so maybe not], you will see there are quite a few crude estimations in place. Simply look at how they forecast how many A380 freighter versions will be sold over a 20-year period....by looking at the deliveries of 747s made, looking at how many of these were freighters (9.9%) and then applying this to the A380 ... yeah ok!

Interestingly, with the 747Adv in the near-term pipeline, this report also points that [if you read between what they are saying about the A380], the 747Adv will only sell around 300 aircraft....that's 12 aircraft produced PER year or one / month. Not too much really!

Cheers

CP

That analysis looks rather shadowy to me.

Wino- anything from your sources?

Toulouse was most definitely under those clouds on your image yesterday!!

I went by Toulouse airport yesterday morning at about 10:00 to collect somebody arriving on EI's service from Dublin. Extremely black clouds just north of the apron. As I watched EI land at about 09:50, a mix of hail and heavy rain was falling with quite a strong northerly wind.

The weather is f:mad: awful here recently. Springs seems to have got lost somewhere...


Sorry, just realised your weather map automatically updates (as you said yourself in your post!). Excellent... :ok:

This morning in Toulouse 22/04/05: Nearly overcast, fairly high cloud cover, no winds, temperature around 10°C at 09:00 (local time). Rain expected later.

Not sure how relevant the date is but next Thursday evening there is a staff do at Filton to celebrate the first flight.

A380 First Flight
 

Not sure how "new" this news is or if it's been covered elsewhere, but it's the latest I've seen.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_2860013.htm

I was sent a photo of it this morning with its nose way-y off the ground, but with the mainwheels still on the runway

Passed overhead here -Cazaubon, about 20 mins ago. Looked graceful!

Find it very hard to believe the 380 has already lifted off... Any proof of this statement? Thanks.

A380
 

Great News.

Any chance of posting the photo you've got Desk Jockey?

CM

I expect the nose up pic was the well known fake that's been around for a couple of days now...

Are you sure it was the A380, the Belugas have been flying today on a couple of missions. No record of the A380 getting airborne! not today.

Has the new 'beast' of a plane had its 90sec evac yet?!
 

And did it pass?! you know that hugeeeeeeee massive new airbusy thing!

Video here



http://grenadeindoor.modelisme.com/A380/a380.wmv

Definitely not to-day. Following three hour old article from China: Airbus test flight within 15 days

www.chinaview.cn 2005-04-21 16:38:18

BEIJING, April 21 -- The world's largest commercial airliner, the A380, will make its first test flight within the next 15 days.

Airbus vice-president Philippe Delmas, who is in China accompanying French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, told reporters that only the pilots would decide what day they want to fly.

The inaugural flight of the new super jumbo airliner developed by the European consortium has been postponed several times. Airbus had initially wanted the flight to take place at the end of March or early April.

Earlier this month, the European aircraft maker said that the flight would come in "the second half of April."

The twin-deck aircraft, capable of carrying between 555 and 800 people, was unveiled January 18 and is scheduled to go into service next year.

where did my post go?!!
 

it disappeared! was about the new airbuss thing and its evac.

Well, if you can't spell Airbus it deserved to go! Perhaps it was moved to a more appropriate forum?

QAR SAR sez:
I believe this should be attributed to one Benny Howard, racer designer & pilot of the 1930's. (He walked off with ALL the big money in 1935 with his "Mister Mulligan".)

And IIRC the 737-200 might have preceded the -100, but not by much.

Mine went aswell.
I started one on when will the 380 fly.
Its now gone - I didn't realise it was a sensitive issue!!

Click on your profiles, and then 'Search for all posts by this user', and you'll find where they went.

I think there's been quite a few threads asking "When will the A380...?" so I'd imagine the mods got a bit bored with the repeated questions and leaned the forums a bit!

V1R :ok:

It happened to me as well.

O.K. deleting a post, for what ever reaseon, so what?
Merging a post, for what ever reason, so what?

BUT, a little notice to the author would be NICE.

Regards

It looks as though what I saw was a Mirage then.

Although it was a very big 4 engined mirage! Also it was white and not too high.

Possible too many glasses of the red stuff before lunch.

If it was not the A380 and it was not a Beluga, as suggested, anyone any ideas what it was?.

Maybe your posts went because there is already a topic running about the A380´s first flight...
When are some people gonna learn to LOOK before posting/asking? :rolleyes:

Here you go! Eight pages so far! Enjoy! :)

@Bokkenrijder

NO!

Definetly not.

regards

Seloco,

Your comment,

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

The shorter the fuselage the higher the resultant nose high attitude of the aircraft, in a pitchup from a strong vertical updraft.

e.g., The Northwest Airlines Flight 705, a Boeing 720B (8 feet shorter than a Boeing 707) was pitched up to a nose high attitude in a strong vertical updraft. The crew used forward pitch control with little effect on the nose attitude, due to the vertical relative wind. Full nose down stabilizer trim was then used in an attempt to lower the nose. the aircraft then exited the updraft into normal relative wind conditions and with the full nose down stabilizer trim setting, the aircraft pitched over into a vertical dive and came apart in the air.

This accident occurred February 12, 1963 over Miami, Florida. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) determined that the probable cause of this accident was the unfavorable interaction of severe vertical air drafts and large longitudinal control dieplacements, resulting in a longitudinal upset from which a successful recovery was not made.

Beauty, or the lack thereof, is not a primary concern in aircraft design, but it may be a hint!

mafibacon, the mighty Vulcan I suppose?

Desk Jockey and Mafibacon,

I popped down to Toulouse Blagnac Airport yesterday to check out your claims. I'd say a couple of hundred people already there, police, and 4 fire-brigades... and I thought, wow, she has taken off. And I couldn't see here anywhere, while she'd been clearlyvisible the past few days. Anyway, apparently she was in one of the hangars, and there were rumours that first flight would be on Friday at 10 am (I imagine next Friday)... this was only a rumour amongst the spotters there... not official.

But, she definitely didn't take off yesterday.

I detect a common theme here. :}

A380 Pic
 

Hi guys,

I'm trying to attach that pic of the fake/genuine nose up of the A380. How can I attach on to this?

Right click.
Properties.
Copy (completely) the URL shown.
PPRuNe message.
Above the text window use 'IMG'
Paste URL in box shown.
OK
and Mike O'Leary is yer uncle.

Thanks IFTB
 

What do I do if it's on my desktop? No URL there. Booooo!

The current best guess is Wednesday, today was doing high speed runs and aborts in preparation.