Airbus Ceases A380 Production

LoneAspen said:
I've never gotten the chance to fly on a 747, and always wanted to. I always wanted to splurge on a trip to Europe and fly in the upper deck of the 747. I see on a Wikipedia article (if accurate) that British Airways still flies 34 of them, and Virgin Atlantic flies 8. So maybe there's still a chance for me to hop a ride on one before they totally disappear from service.
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I've flown on the 747 exactly five times; to/from Sydney in an AirNZ 747-400; Qantas DFW-Melbourne and Sydney-DFW (they couldn't *quite* make DFW-SYD, so the westbound flight was to MEL; resolved now by having the route covered by the A380); and last year, DFW-LHR on BA.

On the last, we splurged and bought business class, upper deck. It was very nice, only five rows of four seats, so uncrowded and excellent service, plus (of course) got to visit the cockpit briefly prior to departure. The entertainment system was Flintstones era, but it worked. No wifi. Plus, being upstairs, the cabin layout meant you had lots of spread-out room at the windows.

Really enjoyed the experience; only real discordant note is that, on British, after you pay five grand to buy the business class trip ("Club World"?), you still have to pay additional money to select your seat before 24 hours prior to departure... and extra $140 or so to ensure we got seated upstairs.
 
Tantalum said:
The other thing they missed an opportunity on was using this for any kind of freight. The 747 lives on in the freight world.. and there aren't many choices for very large freight transports.. C5 is military only, so the AN-125 your only other option outside 747. Granted, my understanding is that the the A380's upper level's floor is a critical structural piece so there was no realistic way of turning it into a cavernous beast.
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There was supposed to be a A380F variant. FedEx was the launch customer with 10 firm orders and options for 10 additional jets. The delays in production started building to the point where FedEx finally had enough, cancelled the orders and bought brand new 777Fs.
 
From EAA:
We have some BIG news to announce! We'll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Boeing 747 this summer at #OSH19!
 
tspear said:
Actually Airbus misjudged the market; in a significant way.
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..this is true, but they were addressing a current problem and were unfortunately blind to, or unaware of, the trend towards twin engine mega efficient birds. Boeing for a long time had wanted to do a 747 revamp (they tossed around several crazy long stretched 747 models), or that mach cruiser (which was bad ass looking).. but ultimately they were watching their 737 / 777 figures and put two and two together and went with the less romantic but financially pragmatic choice of the 787. Airbus must have known this too.. they were watching LCCs grow and big planes moving out. But as someone else said, the A380 was a plane designed by committee and hyper focused on what you identified and how to address that. It reminds me a lot of the Dassault Mercure in that respect

There was a sleek double decker twin engine design floating around somewhere online, let me see if I can find it.. Got it! This is actually an attractive bird
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The 3 trips I've had on Emirates have all been on the 777. I haven't had the chance to grab a flight on the A380, but I'm generally flying the DFW-DXB direct flight. No complaints on the 777, even in coach for 14-15hrs.
 
cmsuav8r said:
I too will be flying on the BA 747 from DEN-LHR and back this October. I've been on the 707, 717, 727, 737, 757, 767, and 777. I'm looking forward to adding the 747 to that list. I do prefer Boeing aircraft and the way they look. The nose/cockpit area design always looks more finished on the Boeing aircraft. I do work for Boeing, so I guess you could say I'm biased. The A350 is the first Airbus that actually looks good to me, and that is because a lot of design cues were borrowed from the 787. I did fly on a Singapore A380 to Tokyo in the center seats of economy a few years back. It wasn't overly comfortable, but I was impressed by the size. We were so far from the windows that we couldn't see outside and we actually landed without ever feeling the plane touch down. That is quite the accomplishment for a flying building.
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Are you in the Springs or at BDEC, if it’s still called that?
 
Big Ugly Airplane... the 747 is graceful and in my opinion a head turner. We still see a few here at my airport. There is still time to go for a ride on one if you have not!

747.jpg
 
LoneAspen said:
I've never gotten the chance to fly on a 747, and always wanted to. I always wanted to splurge on a trip to Europe and fly in the upper deck of the 747. I see on a Wikipedia article (if accurate) that British Airways still flies 34 of them, and Virgin Atlantic flies 8. So maybe there's still a chance for me to hop a ride on one before they totally disappear from service.
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Come to Frankfurt via Chicago. Lufthansa still flies them on that route.
 
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