kalvasflam

Well, the sad part of it is that Airbus is going about business in an assbackwards manner. They decided that prestige was more important, and in some ways it is. When the time comes, the A380 will hold the high end of the passenger market, overshadowing the 747. But in the process, they totally decided to ignore the freight business, and even worse, they ignored the mid-size long haul market. Two markets that Boeing is just running amok right now with sales. Any airframes sitting at Toulouse is literally money down the tubes. Now I understand that with freighters they'll need modifications, but if Airbus had been able to negotiate their way past the wiring problem (which in my limited understanding is still just the entertainment system), they should've just went ahead and fill the ILFC, UPS, Fedex orders. In fact, I wonder how much significant modification will be needed on the existing airframes. Hell, they're delayed with delivery of the first Singapore plane anyway, what difference would it make to SIA if the first plane they get is not the first customer delivery. Since Airbus is paying penalties anyway, they should've just pushed the air freighters ahead. I understand the need for money to change hands if we start skipping customers, but those bean counters should've figured out the cost of lost opportunity. Heck, even if they had to give away the first two deliveries for free, it's better than having airframes sitting around.

Was in Shanghai a few weeks ago, apparently the A380 was flying in there for a day or so after a few other stops in Asia. I missed the plane by one day, left the day after the A380 made its stop. Pity... guess I'll have to wait a while. One interesting thing though, I never realized until recently how large the freight business really is. I must've saw over a dozen different cargo carriers between Beijing and Shanghai. And with IFLC converting the A380F orders, I would say that Airbus has really screwed up. There is a lot of potential to replace 747s out there, and Airbus is just not taking advantage of it. They really should segregate the frieght business away from the passenger business.

This goes right along with a female starbuck doing Baltar. Heh, may be Bond will sit down with the villian and have a nice chat about his emotional needs and why he feel he must dominate the world, and then talk him out of it with a lovely little man-chat. If that's what Craig thinks about Bond, I say give him the George Lazenby treatment.

Finally, it's almost time to start up again. It's been a long 7 month. Although it'll be difficult to top last season. I wish they would have true villians on back to back seasons, not the Nina-esque I just drop in for six episodes and then you don't see me again type. But I look forward to this season immensely.

I also just watched it. It was a very good Bond picture, the story flowed nicely, and it broke more or less the Bond formula of ending up with the girl. I suppose it sets up for a sequel for sure. How good that is, I guess we'll find out in two years or so. This Bond though ain't nearly as smooth as the former Bonds. If it is a reboot of the series, then it's a good thing.

Naw, think of the B-2 (even without nukes) like the ballistic missile subs the US and USSR had. They'd never be used, just for show.

Hmmm, speaking of Japan, do you think Northrop could possibly provide a couple of good ol' B-2s? It'll be a nice deterrence weapon. Nukes not required. Just leave things to the imagination. It would flip over all of Asia. Heh heh, sorry, been away for a while, and am just kidding about this.

Someone really needs to put the F-22 on the foreign market. And the F-117. Older design after all, but it'll be money in the bank.

yeah, but was the TV working?

C3-P0 is really HK-47 in disguise. hah hah... have to seethe lost footage. Sounds interesting, and the problem with Lucas is he is too much of a conformist, and now too smart a business person. The secret footage should bring in another few hundred million. I'm waiting for the remastered version of the prequels.

Stargazer was a good small series, but tough to get into, no recaps was just so weird. The story was a bit rushed to me, and honestly, I couldn't care less about Sven, or Selene or anyone else in the series. Oh well, if they'd just go back to little stories in UC, like MS Igloo that'll be enough for me.

I wonder what the penalty is for the overweight problems, hmmm, and we shouldn't call 787 overweight, might give it self esteem issues.... It's just big boned. I think Fedex still has their option for 10 open don't they? Or does that automatically go away when the first 10 was cancelled?

Igloo is pretty good. The CGI stuff is well... it's not bad, but I'd have been ok with just plain old animation. The story line was pretty good, too bad Sunrise couldn't put this story as a small series in place of the crap we got with GSD.

Anyone watch dogfights on histroy channel? Pretty entertaining show. The Vietnam stuff was especially fun.

It was a nice episode, learned a few new things about the Tomcat I never knew about. Kind of sad to see it go. The Hornet is just not quite up to snuff in my view... oh well.

Wait wait, I know plot. Evil terrorist (German or American) plots to steal experimental warplane to attack airbus factory in Tolouse. And Maverique (standard high risk pilot) takes another plane to shot down terrorist. The terrorist (if German is out there because he wants to keep the A380 jobs in Hamburg... if dastardly American, then he was hired by Boeing to permanently destroy the marvel that is the pride of France, the A380) Heh heh.... like the thought of that plot. P.S. under no circumstances can the terrorist be muslim, it might touch off more riots.

Wasn't that the sonic cruiser concept redux from Boeing?

A little variety is good for life. After all, combat aircraft might be sexy and hot, but it's the commercial airlines that gets business done all day. Although I am the first to admit, just looking at the pictures of the 787 from a distance, it looks exactly like a 737.... BORING

Steriff resigned??? huh? On the other hand, the Rolls news is just pure irony for all involved. And it's funny as hell.... The last statement is just hilarious, I guess that'll surely make Tolouse an expensive place to live in soon. I find the whole thing with respect to the European union and the idea of equality just funny, let everybody share in the work, and hope to hell they get it right. But I'm betting there is stll not one single cancellation at the end of this fiasco. Why... there is not another real competitor. EADS is lucky in that respect.

Interesting tidbit about Boeing, I didn't know it. But then again, I don't think that's quite enough because up until the introduction of the 787 and the Airbus setback, Boeing was getting its ass kicked the last few years. The Airbus crappy service didn't hurt that much then.

Yeah? Have you tried those long ass international flights of 10 or more hours? Besides, too many people would revolt if there was no tv, it's like a damn entitlement for the cattle class. Imagine what would happen to all the JetBlue customers if they decided no more DirecTV. I heard that Singapore Airline is getting compensation for this delay. I wonder how much. I know the airlines have got to all be loving this delay. First, they know they have Airbus over a barrel, because Airbus needs be get the revenue in order to build up A350, and second, the airlines are going to squeeze a bunch of concessions out of Airbus, so I wonder what the actual selling price after all of the compensation that Airbus will be stuck paying out. None of them will cancel orders, besides, it's just unlikely since these guys will have a need for these jumbos for these long point hauls and they can't afford to give Boeing too much of a leg up. The funny thing is if Airbus launched the Cargo version of the A380 first, they would've been far better off, and even Emirates would've been pleased. But on the other hand, Singapore Air must have a pretty big black eye now since they even have a webpage dedicated to the A380. I hope the drawing winner(s) aren't too disappointed with the flight delay of six or more months.

Regardless of the failings of the A380 now, Airbus will ultimately do well, because there is really not a competitor out there that can match the A380. The 747-8 just doesn't quite cut it I think. With Airbus, they can afford to screw things up with A380, because fundamentally, who else is there in the market? Now having said that, the problem is that the decrease in earnings is going to hurt them on the stock market, but they should be pushing ahead with A350 development. Worst case, they go crying to the EU for more subsidies, and the EU can't afford to let EADS's primary business unit fail too badly, so they'll provide subsidies for the A350 development to keep Airbus afloat. On the other hand, Boeing can't screw up at all with the 787. They've announced the plane for almost two years now, maiden flight is next year if I recall correctly. Then first deliveries come in 2008. If they have even one snafu, they're in trouble, and they set all their customers back. If you look at the Boeing order books, there are some majors that haven't ordered at all yet. BA, United, AA, Luftansa, they all come to mind. Given that the Boeing books is full up until 2012. The majors figure they can wait a few years to see how Airbus does before committing to replacement aircraft. I'm positive that Luftansa and some of the other major European airlines will support Airbus even if it delays new planes in their fleet for a few years. So when you sum it all up, Boeing has far more to lose if it screws up. With Airbus, like I said, the 747-8 just isn't a threat at all, and there is nothing but upside for them. As for other manufacturers for airlines... my question is whom? None of the others can build a 787, A350, or an A380 now, they're all still focused on regional jets.

I just read something off of Aviation today that had a test pilot fly the A380. It's a good plane, handles very nicely. All of the bad press is a big fat self inflicted wound that EADS/Airbus management is giving to themselves. The problem is always in terms of expectations. EADS set the bar too high for themselves, part of it is the market, but I think when they figured out that Boeing wasn't going that route, they should've managed their customer expectations properly, now it's just bad news everytime they announce a delay. They better deliver the first plane to Singapore at end of the year, or they're going to have problems. If for some reason their lead customer cancels on them, then they're screwed. I doubt if it'll happen, but I'm sure Singapore Airline is going to make Airbus pay for late delivery. The same is true for Boeing, I think having helped to define the market, the 787 production better run without a hitch, because I can imagine if there are production problems, there really will be hell to pay with Boeing. They have something like 400 planes on order I think. A hitch is going to kill them, and give Airbus a lot of leeway going forward. Because unlike the A380, the 787/777 combination will have a lot of competition if and when Airbus get their act together on the A350 widebodies.

May be they could use the A380... if it ever gets off the production line. Seriously though, wasn't there a company named Evergreen that set up a 747 to do firefighting as well? It would be interesting to see one making a low pass over a fire area.

Anyone seen this movie yet? It looked entertaining in terms of the commercial, but anyone seen the movie yet?