Airbus

[twoeagles]

Just saw that UPS made it official: they cancelled their order for 10 A380's...

 

[Matt308]

And Singapore has renegotiated their deal too.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Does not look good.

 

[trackend]

I cant imagine the chaos thats going to happen at airport luggage handling when an A380 disgourges all its passengers at once It'll take hours just to wait for you case to get off loaded, At Stansted my longest wait so far has been 2 hours and that was just off a 737 from Barcelona (the flight was quicker than the luggage handling)

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Damn I have never waited that long. I would honestly say the latest I have ever waited was about 30 minutes and that was in Atlanta after a flight from Stuttgart, Germany.

 

[Matt308]

30 minutes!! I have been below the 30 minute mark on only VERY rare occasions or when flying commuter aircraft.

 

[Matt308]

...oh, also read that A380 will not be flying into LAX. Rather there will be what was stated as simultaneous landing at O'Hare and LaGuardia. Interesting change there.

 

[v2]

A380 on trans-Atlantic sales pitch-
A380 on trans-Atlantic sales pitch - CNN.com

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

A380 took off from Frankfurt to fly to New York today.

 

[Matt308]

And I read that LAX officials complained so loudly that it will also be landing at LAX today. Apparently did so about 4 or so hours ago. LAX officials were PO'd that they had spent millions in taxiway improvements and gate infrastructure and then threatened with cancellation. They noted the dual gate ramp alone cost $9M.

 

[syscom3]

And I read that LAX officials complained so loudly that it will also be landing at LAX today. Apparently did so about 4 or so hours ago. LAX officials were PO'd that they had spent millions in taxiway improvements and gate infrastructure and then threatened with cancellation. They noted the dual gate ramp alone cost $9M.

The way the -380 saga is unfolding, that gate might not be used for a few more years.

I loved listening to an Airbus official saying that the future of air travel is through a hub and spoke topology.

Hehehehehehhehehe

 

[Matt308]

Unless we build more runways, for large aircraft, that may well be true. If the VLJ business model catches on, things may be different. But then handling US continental airspace populated with a commensurate amount of VLJs to current revenue passenger miles will break the back of the national airspace infrastructure.

I still say invest in high speed rail. Our system is based upon 60s technology and has no room for growth.

 

[Glider]

Very similar arguments were put forward when the 747 started operating and they land in most international airports

 

[syscom3]

Very similar arguments were put forward when the 747 started operating and they land in most international airports

Times have changed between 1968 and 2008.

 

[twoeagles]

Did anyone see the near disastrous landing at LAX? It gave me a cold shiver when the pilot banged that rudder hard over trying to recover!!! Do the main gear trucks castor like a B-52???

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Do you know if there is video of the landing. They did an interview with the pilot when he was over the atlantic and he was talking about how it was a dream to fly. I would love to see the video of the near mishap though.

 

[Matt308]

Did anyone see the near disastrous landing at LAX? It gave me a cold shiver when the pilot banged that rudder hard over trying to recover!!! Do the main gear trucks castor like a B-52???

That;s a good question twoeagles. I do know on the 777 that the some of the rearwheels of the maingear bogies are steerable to assist in turning radius and prevent tire scrubbing. I'll look into it, but would suspect that the A380 makes use of the same technology simply because taxi way issues were so important to fielding the beast.

 

[Matt308]

Here ya go...

From aerospace-technology.com

Goodrich has been contracted to supply the two six-wheel under-fuselage landing gear and the two four-wheeled wing-mounted landing gear. The wing-mounted landing gear is slightly forward of the fuselage-mounted gear. The wheels on the main landing gear are fitted with carbon brakes.

The twin wheel nose landing gear is supplied by Messier-Dowty. The steering control is via the nose gear and via the rear axle of the fuselage landing gear. The gear allows u-turn manoeuvres on a 60m-wide runway.

The aircraft can manoeuvre on 23m-wide taxiways and 45m-wide runways. The French aerospace company Latecoere, based in Toulouse, developed the External and Taxi Aid Camera System (ETACS).

And here is some effects of tire scrubbing on taxi tests

Airliners.net Civil Aviation: A380 Main Landing Gear

 

[Matt308]

...and here's the landing at LAX. Nothing looks out of the ordinary from this video with perhaps the exception that the outboard thrust reversers were not engaged. And likely that was done on purpose since they hang over the edge of the runway threshold.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfKEwGyCMEA

 

[twoeagles]

The video I saw on the news (NBC) was shot from a helicopter as the aspect was looking down, and it appeared as though he was crabbed into a bad crosswind when he touched, skidding for a short distance and not aligned with runway heading. He corrected very qucikly, to be sure, but it was very apparent...Maybe I am confusing it with the New York arrival? I don't think so.

Watch very carefully the end of this sequence:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShK0JsTccDM