Deflating Airbus

As someone who follows the airline industry and aircraft makers as a hobby it was sad to see the mighty jumbos come in for a hard landing.

A jumbo jet is a wide body aircraft (usually double aisled) designed to fly long distances ideally for less cost than flying multiple smaller planes. American made, Boeing ruled the skies with its flagship 747 four engine jumbo for decades after introducing it in the 1970s.

Airbus which is a consortium of European Aerospace businesses built a real competitor in the form of the A380. The 380 is a large full double decker affair with four larger jet engines of its own. It came at a critical time in the global economy with a maiden flight circa 2008.

This coupled with rising fuel prices did not play well for the new aircraft. With far fewer orders than the 747 which had introduced the double decker concept with its big top design decades earlier, the Europeans managed to get some oil rich kingdoms to sign up for the most copies. But that allure is fading fast and it seems the A380 will bite the dust soon.

I heard somewhere an electric flying appliance is not far away.

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