Word: a380
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...Conspicuously absent from the A380 order list are casth-strapped U.S.-based airlines which are more interested in Airbus' rival: Boeing. The B-787 Dreamliner is a smaller fuel-efficient jet just shy of 300-seat capacity. Already 38 airlines have ordered 490 planes ranging in price from $148 million to about $189 million. Continental, the first to sign on, has an order out for 25. Qantas has committed to 45 with 20 options, and the right to purchase 50 more. Airbus wants its A350 (still in development and listed at $165 million) to compete head-to-head with...
...remember how all that weight splashes down? From the window, the airport runway seemed to approach rapidly. Then the tires hit the ground, causing a deep rumble. A split-second panic: would those little wheels give way? A few people winced as the aircraft shuddered and swayed and the A380 slowed down. The great white whale had landed...
...ANGELES The colossal Airbus A380 lands...
...immediate cause of the trouble is the A380, a $14 billion, 555-seat, double-decker plane that is one of those bet-the-company ventures, so beloved by the aerospace industry, that either succeed spectacularly--as the Boeing 747 did--or risk sending a firm into a tailspin. Remember Lockheed's L1011? Mechanically, the A380 works. But Airbus has had to tear up its delivery schedule several times because of nagging manufacturing problems, primarily involving wiring. That has enraged launch customers; some have canceled their orders. FedEx and UPS walked, which killed the cargo version of the plane...
...blue-collar jobs have traditionally been divvied up among its various state and private owners. Horse trading trumps efficiency, so many operations are needlessly duplicated. The wiring muddles behind nearly $3 billion in cost overruns are a classic example: plants in Toulouse and Hamburg wired different parts of the A380 in different ways, using different software. That turned final assembly into an impossible puzzle...