Club Arnage

I will "coincidentally" be near LHR this pm to see this little bird.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4992332.stm

PS Randy please note: wings are made in Wales.

Well I'm only down the road in Sunny (?) Slough so may well pop down and check her out.  What time is she due in?

Shame, i'll be drunk hopefully ....



Doris - Slough.....

Somebody has to work there! 

it lands in about tem mins you watch live from here.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060518/ukth005.html?.v=60

Hardly Concorde, a Vulcan or a Lancaster though is it.  Impressive engineering but not very pretty.

Quite true.  Its white, fat and four engined and has just flown past Canary Wharf

Winds blowing in the wrong direction to see it from Slough/Windsor

Its on the BBC, and made it in one piece

Managed to catch this on the beeb.   

Rather rotund and beached whale like but a fair impressive piece of kit none the less.

What is it Doris, missionary work on the Britwell Estate? You are gonna need an APC and a flame thrower.

Used to work on the Trading Estate.... went to Britwell once for fish & chips ....got caught up in armed siege!!! .....chips went cold!

Interesting and challenging concept, but it has a lot of detractors.  There are those who think Boeing is going in a better direction with the 787.  The A380 is massive but will be expensive to operate and there aren't a hell of a lot of airfields that can handle it.  It'll be a hub to hub airplane.  The 787 will be smaller but also much cheaper to fly and can use most airports.
Fax

Karmic punishment for being a very bad person in a previous life.  That's all I can think it could be. 

Hi fax, it will be interesting to see how the ongoing commercial fight between Boeing and Airbus develops.  Although the 787 is more the size of the A350, which I think rolls out nearly year after the 787.  Where as I believe Boeing is upgrading the venerable 747 to dash 8 configuration as a direct competitor to the 380.

I remember when the 747 was launched and we didn't think there could ever be a need for an aircraft that large!  Guess only time will tell.

FS

Hi Spider,
Agreed, the 747 had a lot of detractors as well, and the old nail's been flying for a long time now.  I guess the real determining factor will be moving people vs the soaring cost of fuel.  The Airbus will carry around twice the passengers as the 787 but will burn alot more fuel.  Personally I think they will both fill their somewhat different niches nicely.
As long as one of them will get me to Le Mans & Sebring ;)
Fax

Aren't the 787 and the A380 just modern/bigger replacements for the 7thingy7 and 747.

Every piece of tarmac is western europe gets 3 planes a day, from Easyjet, from nothing a few years ago.  They use secondhand 737s, from the US.  This must be the bottom of the food chain.

Amen to that john.  of course the "green" lobby will be ensuring that more and more CO2 tax is apportioned to aircraft flights.

One of our political parties have today released details of increasing the car/road tax to £2000 per year for high CO2 vehicles like the Porsche Cayenne.

Though, i thought the idea about charging the CO2 flight tax per aircraft instead of per passenger had some merit.

Pee wee

Lorry,
Boeing's been churning out 737's since the late sixties. Hence the reason they're everywhere, with new versions to come.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737
Fax

The 787 is closer to the 737 in size as it is designed to operate to and from "smaller" airports.

I managed to see the A380 at lunchtime as it flew over the City, followed by a smaller chase plane. Looks like a massive Fokker, but is only 15feet wider

I was just watching the coverage from Heathrows website, and they said the A380 creates only half the noise of a 747 and uses 12% less fuel...

Not bad if true.

Patrick.

Holly sh*t.

This is a motor racing forum with a bit of sex and drunken abuse.

Not a plane spotters convension.

Get back in your broom cupboards.

Canada contributed Cold weather testing for this aircraft. well we do have lots to go around ;D
Canada Phil

It's fu-cking MASSIVE! Not so much the length, or even the width. It's the hight of six double decker buses and it's an astounding spectacle.

Mr Zarse where did you see it at LHR?

Erm... in the air Peter ??? ;D

the way you related it i thought maybe you had been to LHR and seen the wee beastie, never mind, i'll go into the corner for a while ::)

i missed it >:( which is really annoying as i was involved with the construction of the new 4 gate pier they built specially for it :(

Sorry guys but I've gotta chip in as I have a remote involvement here.

My company designed the steel structure to the factory that makes the wings in North Wales, and believe me that is one big factory.

Jem

sorry for my five pennies worth too...
my company designed and manufactures the fuel systems
it uses (not without a few problems!)
tis a big bugger, and we were relieved it when it got off the ground a while ago...........,
 and stayed there for a while!!! :)

Is it still at Heathrow or has it now departed ?
If it's still there, when does it leave and if its left, when back next?

Having spent £450 million, I heard the new cargo pier didn't fit as they were about four foot short; they had great difficulty closing the hold doors.  :(