Author Topic: The behemoth is due to fly tomorrow (Read 3739 times)

bunch · « **Reply #150 on:** May 02, 2005, 12:55:52 PM »

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Originally posted by mora
AFAIK it can land easily on a 45 m wide runway. It might not be able to use to taxiways but it can land on smaller airports just fine in case of an emergency.

I saw where a 747 was put down on a 50' wide 4000' long strip in S. Africa. Gear width was about 6' less than than the runway. Probably had more to do with the qualities of the pilot than the aircraft (i've put a C-172 down on a runway only 20' wide - with gear width only 8.3' ;P). What with flight plans requiring fuel for diverting, it should be OK. How wide is the A-380's gear?

Chairboy · « **Reply #151 on:** May 02, 2005, 12:57:51 PM »

On a completely unrelated note, I once saw a video of a DC-10 that operated off of a dirt/gravel runway in Africa. Does anyone have a link to that somewhere?

bunch · « **Reply #152 on:** May 02, 2005, 01:10:44 PM »

did it have special gear?

or balloon tires?

how would a C-99 have stood up against an A-380?
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/gustin_military/db/us/C99CONVA.html

VWE · « **Reply #153 on:** May 02, 2005, 01:10:53 PM »

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except that I do get a bit peeved when people say A380 can't succeed if it won't appeal to USA based airlines. ^

Do the math, its called volume... the U.S. based carriers do 5 times the daily traffic as all the rest of the worlds airlines combined. The 380 is designed to for just that, volume of passengers.

beet1e · « **Reply #154 on:** May 02, 2005, 02:13:08 PM »

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Originally posted by VWE
Do the math, its called volume... the U.S. based carriers do 5 times the daily traffic as all the rest of the worlds airlines combined. The 380 is designed to for just that, volume of passengers.

Do the geography. You may be correct in saying that the US carriers do 5 times the daily traffic as the rest of the world.

But you're overlooking one key factor - the number of destinations. I'll go over it one more time for you. The US has hundreds of cities served by internal flights. Some routes will have several flights a day. This means that there are thousands of flights each day within the US. What your "total volume" logic fails to take into account is that the average number of seats required on each aircraft will be the total volume which you spoke of (5 times the rest of the world according to your post) divided by the total number of flights. That's the reason that your internal flight service depends on lots of little tiddlers like the MD80 - backbone of American Airlines.

Didn't you ever wonder why AA does not run any 747s? Didn't you give any thought to why one country in SE Asia one sixth the size of Rhode Island has an airline whose smallest aircraft is the A340? Do the geography. Keywords: size, range.

Besides, with regard to success of the A380, what does the US market have to do with the price of fish?

VWE · « **Reply #155 on:** May 02, 2005, 02:25:14 PM »

Personal attack.

Fishu · « **Reply #156 on:** May 02, 2005, 03:05:34 PM »

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Originally posted by GScholz
VWE, your logic is flawed.

Give him a break, hes from texas.

beet1e · « **Reply #157 on:** May 02, 2005, 03:10:37 PM »

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Originally posted by VWE
I've never said that the 380 would be ideal for flying in the U.S. but that unless Airbus starts selling to U.S. carriers the 380 will not be a finantial success.

I don't see the logic in that statement either. How many need to be sold for it to become a financial success? There are already firm orders for 139 A380 aircraft. And I have also demonstrated that the US represents only a tiny proportion of the destinations served by A380 pioneer, SIA.

Please explain why the A380 needs to be sold to US airlines to be commercially viable.

VWE · « **Reply #158 on:** May 02, 2005, 03:19:06 PM »

Just in the top 10 airlines of the world U.S. bases airlines daily passenger volume is 446,000 compared with 188,000 for all the rest... who's doing the 1/3 again?

VWE · « **Reply #159 on:** May 02, 2005, 03:26:34 PM »

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Give him a break, hes from Texas

You should not show such obvious envy. If you work really hard maybe someday Finland will become a nation.

Chairboy · « **Reply #160 on:** May 02, 2005, 03:29:05 PM »

No, the DC-10 looked stock, that was part of why it was so neat that it was flying out of a gravel strip.

C'mon, anybody?

Staga · « **Reply #161 on:** May 02, 2005, 03:44:41 PM »

380 took off, flew few hours and landed after that.

Get over it.

Fishu · « **Reply #162 on:** May 02, 2005, 03:45:26 PM »

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Originally posted by VWE
Just in the top 10 airlines of the world U.S. bases airlines daily passenger volume is 446,000 compared with 188,000 for all the rest... who's doing the 1/3 again?

Thats once again illogical.
Do you expect only the top 10 airlines to buy A380's?
Mind that the top profit making airline in the USA is Southwest, which does NOT operate big planes at all and is a low fare airline.
In Europe the #1 is Ryanair, which is also a low fare airline and also operates only one plane type.

...let alone the 1/3rd remark

Ps. Heathrow alone has ~180,000 passengers a day.

Can't say I'd envy your logic

Hangtime · « **Reply #163 on:** May 02, 2005, 04:16:49 PM »

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Originally posted by Staga
380 took off, flew few hours and landed after that.

Get over it.

This reply just kills me.. I dunno why, but it does.

Mebbe because Langley said pretty much the same thing after hearing about what the Wright Bros. did at Kill Devil Hill.

bunch · « **Reply #164 on:** May 02, 2005, 11:20:42 PM »

I think Chairboy's item is a lot more interesting than the
'A380 sux' vs. 'A380 r0olz'
back & forth...