Really friggin’ huge plane on media tour
The Airbus A380 taxis after landing at JFK International Airport in New York March 19, 2007. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
For all of Airbus’ woes, today is the day they seemed to all melt away – if for only that moment when the 550+ passenger plane touched down on U.S. soil for the first time.
The company has been plagued by delays that triggered the cancellation of several orders that add up to more than $3.3 billion in costs to the company according to The New York Times.
Today, however, it doesn’t seem to matter. The media have been abuzz with the plane’s massive body. “Flying on football field-length wings, she’s as tall as a seven-story building, roomy enough to fit 70 vehicles on its wings, as heavy as 500 Volkswagen Golfs and big enough to carry 35 million ping pong balls” they scribed. Enough soundbytes to ground a, well, nevermind…
Aside from the cool pictures, the tale isn’t smooth sailing at all. No American airline has purchased a single $319 million A380 and none has any intent to do so. Thousands have been laid off by the public/private Euro partnership and a CEO has been ousted. Airports have scrambled to make accommodations for the monstrosity with taxiways widened, runways realigned, and doubledecker jetways installed. We’ll sit tight too – waiting to jump to any conclusions on the argument that more passengers on fewer flights is a good thing until we get a sense of how much carbon this puppy spits out per passenger mile versus other aircraft.
In lieu of any hard data at hand right now (and a lack of brain cells to care that much), we’ll play along and let the jet enjoy its media tour on the two coast with a pointless flight around Manhattan ooh and aah onlookers who question physics just one more time.
Meanwhile, if you want to assemble one yourself, here’s how:
Via every media outlet under the sun.
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