A350-1000

Zonda999

A bit late with this but imagine the A350-1000



The A380 looks magnificent in that photo. Who knows, maybe some day we'll see such an aircraft for real. For now, a pretty good Aprils fools I thought

While I'm at it, feast you're eyes on this

sparrowcar

*A380-1000

L1011

It's actually correctly proportioned at that length. Oh well

Peregrine

Zonda999 wrote: »

While I'm at it, feast you're eyes on this

A379?

Zonda999

sparrowcar wrote: »

*A380-1000

Damn, I'd had never spotted that. The A350-1000 does actually exist after all..

Mods, please change title..

MYOB wrote: »

It's actually correctly proportioned at that length. Oh well

I know, it looks great. Even if they do stretch the A380, I;m not sure we'll ever see one long long. The one in the render would be 80 to 85m surely!

merisi

Something that size would probably need six engines like the An-225.

Stinicker

Isn't there plans for an A380-900 as opposed to the current A380-800, if built it will be able to carry over 1,000 passengers in an all economy class configuration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A380-800#A380-900

The first A380-800 in an all economy class configuration is due in 2014 when Air Austral will receive their A380 with space for 840 passengers!

Zonda999

Stinicker wrote: »

Isn't there plans for an A380-900 as opposed to the current A380-800, if built it will be able to carry over 1,000 passengers in an all economy class configuration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A380-800#A380-900

The first A380-800 in an all economy class configuration is due in 2014 when Air Austral will receive their A380 with space for 840 passengers!

I'm not sure that Air Austral order for the all economy A380 is still going ahead. They hit issues last year when they couldn;t take delivery of a 777-200LR. I ll go look for a link..

EDIT: I can't find it confirmed anywhere but plenty of forum talk and reports saying that they were going to cancel

As for the bigger A380, no doubt, when the A380 was conceived, there was/is scope for expansion but I'm not so sure we'll see it now, sadly enough. The A380 order tally has remained stagnant enough for the last couple of years. There is talk all the time of top up orders from Emirates, BA and some of the big current and future operators but I don't see any more huge orders like those from Emirates.

I recently watched the 5 part Discovery documentary on the A380. In it John Leahy talks about sales figures in the region of 1500 units over 20 years. Clearly, that is now not going to happen. There are currently 264 firm orders for the A380. Based on some of the figures mentioned in that documentary, this is barely enough for the program to turn a profit. Granted, the global financial crisis was not on Airbus's estimates but the program was launched in the year 2000 remember. IMHO, the next iteration we see of the A380 is the Freighter version, if any at all. There was scope for the freighter before Airbus postponed its development. All the major air freighters then ordered the 777F and the 748F

As for the next passenger A380, I'd expect nothing before 2020. There are still teething issues with the A388 remember. The wing joint cracking issue has been going on for a few years and a permanent fix has only recently been announced. The probable simple facts are that few operators really need to space of the A380. Plenty other smaller aircraft have effectively the same range so look comparatively like a much less risky investment. Think the 787-800 for example, about half the size of the A380 and the same range. The only other VLA, the B748 looks to be done in terms of orders (At about 30 orders, for the passenger version) and IMO, one of the reasons Boeing are stalling on launching the 777X is that the stretched 777-9X really will be the final nail in the coffin for the B748. That aircraft will do extremely well when its launched, I have no doubt. At least Airbus have the A350-1000 to compete with that

bnt

Nimrod 7 wrote: »

A379?

Looks like an A380SP. Wouldn't be the first time - remember the 747SP?