I am sorry, but as a pilot, nothing impresses me about the A380, its only asset is the double-decker cabin and its only improvement is the curved dihedral, but other than that it does nothing for me. All the other touted improvements are
I care about how an airplane looks, I care about aesthetics, and many pilots -not just Boeing fans- will agree that the A380 is lacking in that. The aircraft doesn’t have a graceful face, yes, I meant that. Look at a 747 classic or the beautiful stretches, or even the uglier variant the 747SP looks cool combined to this fat mammoth. Let everyone know that from this moment, I declare the A380 ugly, and not the adorable ugly like ugly Betty, but the horrendous ugly.
I am a fan of Boeing and therefore I am biased but an A319 in easyJet livery is just as much eye candy to me as the Air Asia 737 seen here. (shameless plug-in of a Malaysia trip photo). Although I like the engine look better.
But the A380 is annoyingly an eyesore, the cockpit, is placed in a cumbersome manner, it looks like its not on either story which gave the aircraft a forehead. The aircraft looks short in length, compare it to the 340-600 in the background. I absolutely hate it, it is the first wide-bodied aircraft that fails to have elegance, yet I would love to fly it.
When the B747 was introduced it cut the costs of travel by about 50% or at least cut the cost on the carriers, which was the hay-days of airlines, it introduced a new class of travelers and has outsold every comparative model and still does, there are 120 orders on it and will add to the 1380 already built to reach 1500. It held the record for the largest aircraft for 35 years, let’s see if A380 can actually sell enough to break-even, not to mention outsell Boeing again.
In 2006, Boeing was the world’s largest civil aircraft company in terms of orders, overtaking Airbus for the first time since 2000. Last year, 398 aircrafts were delivered by Boeing. Good luck, Airbus, you will need it with the introduction of the 787 and the new 747-800.
