The thought of a two-hour "flightseeing" trip over southern California doesn't seem too pleasant: Santa Ana and Malibu wildfires and struggling to squint through LA's layer cake-like layers of pollution. But when it's a trip taken on the Airbus A380, even a gray view might be enjoyable.
Blogger CrankyFlier certainly thought so and posted a review of his recent trip on the super-jumbo. Offered to 150 people, the trip--which was reportedly "true dork bliss"--began at LAX, looped around southern California, went out over the Pacific and returned to LA. The planes, designed for a quieter, greener and more-comfortable experience, lived up to expectations, according to CF.
The upstairs cabin is a more humane 2-4-2 in coach. The slope in the walls is noticeable, and like on the 747's upper deck, there is a nice little compartment between the window seat and the window...That's a great feature, and I think it's clear that unless you're traveling in a group of three, upper deck seating if the way to go, if you have the choice.
Other bonus features include a super-sized lavatory on the lower level, a sizable crew cabin and, as CF notes, a "massive, heaving wing." Are we jealous that he got the tour? Uh, that'd be a 380-sized yes.
Airbus is tooling around North America in another of its publicity-loving A380s. And everyone from die-hard plane-spotter to curious soccer dad is out to catch a glimpse of the bird.
After flying into MCO--an airport that won't likely see another A380 anytime soon--the super-jumbo is headed back to France after a stop in Montreal. But don't despair, Minnesota! Your date with the Airbus starts the night of October 26 and goes until the next morning. Just remember: No fooling around!
Singapore Airlines' first flight of the superjumbo A380 takes off in a little over two weeks, and Airbus must be chilling the champagne. After years of delays, controversy and throwing money down what seemed to be a bottomless pit, the aerospace company can now focus on selling these planes rather than building them.
In the meantime, Boeing is still struggling to get its 787 off the ground. After taking more than 800 orders, the firm has pushed the first deliveries back to late 2008. That said, airlines are still on board to use Boeing's new, high-tech jet, which has a range of over 10,000 miles and, perhaps more importantly, gets great gas mileage.
The debut of the massive AirbusA380 is less than two months away, and there's been plenty of buzz about the 555-passenger plane that's set to fly from Singapore to Sydney on October 25. (And, yes, Singapore Airlinesis auctioning the seats for charity on eBay.)
Besides getting in to scrapes, the plane is at the heart of another pseudo-scandal: Back in July, a mystery buyer picked up one of the jets as a private plane. At the time, all Airbus would say is that the buyer was neither European nor American. Today, Le Figaro says (in French) that the buyer is Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.
Oh Airbus, can't you stick to building cartoonishly large airplanes? Instead, the plane-makers, with a nod from the European Aviation Safety Agency, are planning to develop the world's first on-board cell-phone network. The network, designed for phones that use the (common in Europe) GSM standard, will supposedly allow cabin crew to block incoming and outgoing calls for announcements from the flight deck and descriptions of in-flight entertainment.
In totally unrelated news, Miss Manners will head a new commission of ninjas to "displace" people who use cell phones on planes inappropriately.
Could be worse, you could get next to someone podcasting mid-flight. Or, horror of horrors, you have the middle seat next to a podcaster and someone with 1000 anytime minutes to blow.
[Photo of Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man: NYTimes.com]
Here's a picture for you. The giant Airbus A380 touched down in Mumbai earlier this week, arriving from Delhi where it apparently had at least one unsuccessful landing. Kingfisher Airlines is currently the only Indian carrier to have A380s on order. In other A380 news, pictures of a properly painted Singapore Airlines superjumbo are now available.
By now you've learned a lot about the A380, after its American invasion and all, but there's additional worthy coverage out there for the true enthusiast. Popular Mechanics managed to weasel their way onto the big bird, and survived with some great video to show for it. They loved the bar, the powerful feel at takeoff, and the upper deck, among other things. Though the configuration was Airbus' and not Lufthansa's, the coverage indicates that the possibilities for airline customization are looking good. Click through for Ben Chertoff's full review.
Also interesting is the somewhat awkwardly named Touch-Down A380 USA, a blog maintained by Lufthansa employees. It's full of the same wide-eyed enthusiasm for aviation found in most other sources, including Jaunted. Now, please excuse us while we go write the plane a fan letter and ask for an autograph. Those wings are prehensile and can autograph for us, no?
The Airbus A380 photos and videos are rolling in. First we received two short video clips from outside and inside the plane (A380 cabin video here--just scroll down). The clips were shot while the plane was on the ground at JFK Monday.
Second, Mark Ashley, Upgrade Travel Better blogger, just so happened to be landing at Chicago's O'Hare yesterday around 5pm, and found the big bird was hard to miss--even from the train to long term parking.
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by laurenuta
