Well said! I’ve been lucky enough to fly on one and it was without a doubt the best flying experience I’ve ever had. I hope Airbus manage to make a great success of them.

Innovation? No. Just a big ugly bucket of old technology. The Boeing 787 has incredible innovations inside and out.

Me too! Could you imagine????

They cant have them, none of the runways at any irish airports are big enough

I think you should get your facts straight before you make assumptions, Gavin. Dublin, Shannon and Knock Airports can all facilitate an A380 at maximum landing weight.

At MTOW a A380 requires between 2750m and 2900m runway, Dublins 2 runways (10/28 at 2637m and 16/34 at 2072m) are both below this. Dublins 3rd runway which was shelved in 2008 would have allowed to service dublin and would have been 3110m in length, any more facrs you need Aaron?

Gavin the A380 was tested for touch and gos at Shannon Airport by Airbus worked fine so the runway can support A380′s , the problem was the parking space due to the terminal.

Good point Karl, just checked the chart at shannon out, the runway is 3199m long, longest in Ireland

Gavin – which is why I said MLW (Maximum Landing Weight), not MTOW (Maximum Takeoff Weight). My original comment still stands as correct.

Lower deck standing room only!

Agreed. I’m against any subsidies, period. The only difference being, the U.S. military has been keeping your sorry asses safe for the past 70 years as opposed to the results of the European subsidies.

Not true Andrew. The difference is night and day. Boeing provides a product for those contracts, which, by the way, any other company can bid on. Airbus gets handouts to stay afloat giving nothing in return.

Au contraire…

In the interests of ‘national security’ congress has set a strict series of requirements that mean no one else can trusted and Boeing and others can name their price to design the space toilet seat…

See the above example

Concorde… In that instance both companies recieved development monies, BA paid £1 for the plane the UK government covered the rest. The United States gave enough cash to pay 20,000 employees at Boeing…. And only airbus provided a product. Supersonic 207 was scrapped in development

Ha. That’s what they said about the Titanic, Zeppelins and the Space Shuttle and apartments in Clonmel and look how famous they are now, eating their words.

It’s not that much bigger than a 747. Surely somebody who flies would know the redundancy offered by four engines is greater than one….

You’re absolutely right and if you look at statistics there are far more fatal accidents involving General Aviation Aircraft than there are in commercial jet traffic. However, EASA have stated that all A380′s that have flown over 18000 flights are being inspected for cracks in the rib-skin attachments immediately. That’s a significant issue after such short service.

But the part affected is not actually safety critical. They have now located the issue to a certain point in the production process and as such it can now be resolved. If this was a real safety issue, the fleet would have been grounded, and rightfully so.

True, made at Filton airfield just outside Bristol.

just as well so! Irish aviation is lucky to have such an impeccable safety record

Untrue. A pair of A330′s would fund an A380. Aerlingus have 8, plus a further 44 A320 series aircraft.

It’s a shame then that aerlingus only own 34 A320′s

A320 series Paul. Which includes the A319 soon to be delivered, and the A321. But the point still stands…

They only have 3 A321 aircraft and i doubt the A319 will be delivered considering there are 6-7 A320 parked at Dub Shannon, Also if they did sell them they would have to fill the huge pension deficit and then they could barely afford a cup of coffee

You know NOTHING!

Funniest comment I have ever heard. Investigate some of Ryanair’s “deals” with European airports many of which are owned by local governments. Subsidies amount to about one half of Ryanair’s annual profits. With reference to Boeing, their military contracts paid by the US taxpayer fund much of their civilian aerospace division….

Sorry I’m wrong, Pratt and Whitney was spun off of Boeing not GE.

@Dave, So what if Boeing’s military division passes on the technological develepments to its civilian partner? When the Soviet nuclear subs were freely pissing in your back garden who was keeping your retarded ass safe? Wasn’t it that big, mean U.S. military? Can’t you grasp that there is a difference between a “money down the toilet” subsidy and a “subsidy” that comes in the form of the military budget? I’m not for large military at all but I’m even less for is pointless nanny state spending in order to get the union vote i.e Airbus.

Money down the toilet subsidy…

Supersonic 2707, a competitor to the airbus Concorde being designed by Boeing that the US congress was funding 100% with subsidies.Why? Pure national pride was at stake as the USA couldn’t be behind the British/French.

Congress cut the funding to Boeing for supersonic 2707 in 1971… Boeing had to lay off half it’s workforce 40,000 people. The US government was PAYING half the companies pay role to design a commercial jet they were intending to sell at a loss.

And airbus is a dirty byword for subsidized industry and Boeing isn’t…

34 thumbs down,they must be know alls
ever watched the programme on discovery about this plane? I guess not..

Oh that’d be the us station discovery channel, sister channel to the great fox news, good friend to Boeing and the republican party.

A destructive test has to be carried out on a single plane before it can mass produced, and the wings usually hit between 35/45 degrees of each other before buckling, they are one of the strongest parts of an aircract as they are the actual load bearing part

When the chips are down, I would rather do a crash landing in a large plane than in a relatively claustrophobic medium sized one like an Embraer or similar – although the safety record of all multi-engined jets is much better than that of single engined private planes.

The regular inspections given to all commercial planes are comprehensive and detailed. If only all lorries, buses and cars were scrutinised like this… especially the nuts at the wheels (!)

Absolutely no need to worry! I have flown on it now 3 times, and it is absolutely the most pleasant long haul aircraft to fly on. People felt the same about the 747 when it launched, and now it is accepted as one of the safest aircraft ever built.
Really, I’d urge you try it and judge for yourself.