The super-wealthy are already in competition for who has the biggest, most-blinged out yacht. So why not planes? Joe Sharkey last covered the issue of “mine plane needs to be bigger” in the Times with a story on how some of the biggest ballers were trading up from those cramped, tiny corporate jets to converted commercial jets, including 747s.
Of course it was only a matter of time until someone set their eyes on the new generation of superjumbojets. At least one has already been ordered by a wealthy individual, so you know more are on the way. The price tag for an Airbus A380—the biggest passenger jet ever built—is merely $310 million—which is only four times what the average super yacht costs (if there is such thing as an average super yacht). But that’s for the stripped down version—getting it up to mega mogul speed will take around $100 million
(By the way, if this sort of story sounds vaguely familiar, it’s probably because you read it before on ESPN.com.)
It Can Hold 853 Passengers, but Why Should You Share? [New York Times]

We’ve had a lot of fun with the troubles European aircraft manufacturer Airbus has had with its giant A380 superjumbo jet but we’ve never actually seen one. Today we’ll get out chance. The first A380 to fly in the United States is scheduled to land at JFK International Airport at half-past noon today. Catch it now because the way those customer orders are being canceled, you may never seen one again.

Lufthansa flying Airbus A380 superjumbo takes off for JFK on first flight to America [AP]

Airbus on Thursday said it plans to invest some $1 billion in India, setting up an engineering facility and a pilot training school.
Airbus also released a study predicting a huge growth in the Indian airline industry, saying that the country will need 1,100 airplanes worth $105 billion by 2025.

Airbus to Invest $1 Billion in India [AP via NYTimes]

The phrase “wake vortex” sounds like something from science fiction. Isn’t this what happens when they stop punching in the numbers on the Lost Island?
Apparently it’s real. Turns “wake vortex” is the air spinning at high speeds off the wings of airplanes after takeoff. And it’s another problem with Airbus’s superjumbo A380 jet. The wings on the A380 create a wake vortex which remains dangerous for other planes taking off behind it for a minute or two more than other large airliners. During the peak flight hours during which most A380 flights will likely be scheduled, this could create serious delays at airports.
Of course, that’s assuming the airports even have room to fit the A380. Many airports simply do not have room to fit the larger plane, and some US municipalities are skeptical about whether it makes sense to spend funds to make the necessary adjustments to accommodate a European built plane.
Study Says Airbus Super Jet Poses Airport Traffic Problem [New York Times]

ESTRAGON: Nothing to be done.
VLADIMIR: (advancing with short, stiff strides, legs wide apart). I’m beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I’ve tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven’t yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He broods, musing on the struggle. Turning to Estragon.) So there you are again. The A380 is delayed again.
The inability of Airbus to deliver its super jumbo jet is becoming just plain weird. To put it more philosophically, the Airbus A 380 is in a constant state of Becoming but it never seems to arrive at Being.

Airbus SA, maker of the yet-to-be-delivered A380 super jumbo passenger jet, is about to announce another production delay, a report said Wednesday.
French newspaper Les Echos said that Airbus would announce, perhaps this week, a new A380 delivery delay.
Airbus will reveal that it will only be able to deliver four of the nine A380s it has promised for next year, the BBC reported.
The A380, which cost $14 billion to develop, is the world’s largest passenger airliner with a seating capacity of more than 800.

Airbus expects another A380 delay [UPI in the Washington Times]

The man who led Airbus’s super jumbo-jet program whose troubles this June helped crush the share price in its parent company, EADS, is finally out. His departure follows the resignation of Airbus’s chief executive, Gustav Humbert, and the French co-chairman of the parent, Noel Forgeard. Whether or not the super jumbo-jet ever pays off for the company, it has been an absolute disaster for most of the executives involved in it.
Note the headline from the International Herald Tribune story below. Shouldn’t it work exactly the opposite way. Retention of managers who make bad decisions and fail to execute on company plans should add to a company’s woes. The fact that executives have left or been forced out, however, at least indicates that the company is taking its problems seriously…if a bit slowly.

Executive shuffle adds to Airbus’s woes [International Herald Tribune]

The Germans have mostly gotten a pass in the Airbus mess, avoiding the messy French meltdown that has some talking about toppling the government in Paris. But do the Germans deserve to get off so easily? An article in the International Herald Tribune suggestions maybe not.

The problem that has delayed the A380′s entry into commercial service for more than a year falls into the highly annoying category. For reasons that have defied simple explanation, the wiring harness for each plane keeps showing up with serious defects that can leave them useless. Because many of the bundles are made in Hamburg and then shipped to Toulouse, France, accusations have flown between the French and German plants as to whose fault this is.

Free Flow: A380 trips but has fans [IHT]

Noel Forgeard is still fighting to keep his post at troubled planemaker Airbus, Bloomberg reports.

Noel Forgeard co-chief executive of Airbus’s parent, said he won’t quit following delays in the delivery of A380 superjumbo jets and questions about his sale of shares, resisting pressure from the group’s German shareholder.
Forgeard, 59, responding to questions in a closed-door session of the French parliament’s finance and economic affairs committee, said there was “no question,” of him resigning, according to Pierre Mehaignerie, the committee’s co-head.

Insert joke about the Germans not seeing this much French refusal to surrender since the first world war here.

Head Forgeard Won’t Quit, Resisting German Pressure [Bloomberg]

The BBC is reporting that a shareholder group has launched a “French-style class action” lawsuit against EADS, the 80% parent company troubled planemaker Airbus.
Meanwhile, French right-winger Jean-Marie Le Pen has decided to add his voice to the fray, calling for embattled Airbus co-executive Noel Forgeard to be sent to a monastery.

“I think that if I was a shareholder there wouldn’t be a shadow of a doubt. I would send him off to the Benedictines (monks) to learn a bit of moderation, thought and wisdom.”

Not quite “Get thee to a nunnery” but close enough that if we were in Forgeard’s place we’d want to keep in mind how Ophelia ends up in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Send EADS chief to a monastery – France’s Le Pen [Reuters]

Another day, another crisis at Airbus. The latest news is that Congressman John Mica is saying that federal funds should not be used to rebuild US airports to accommodate Airbus’s A380 super jumbojet, the world’s largest passenger jet.
The reason this matters is that Mica is the chairman of the House aviation subcommittee. Although most US airports are owned by local municipalities, federal funding is an important part of the financing for construction and maintenance of many airports. The A380 is so big it will not be able to safely land and gate at many airports if they are not refurbished.
Airbus plans for US dealt blow [Financial Times on MSNBC]

Okay. Airbus is not a Margritte painting. But following the crisis at Airbus increasing has the same feeling of paranoid unreality. As if some illusion had been lifted and we were discovering that the world is much, much stranger than we thought.
Take the latest report from IAG, the travel and aviation consultancy group, which describes the situation at Airbus as so laced with international intrigue it recalls one of Charles McCarry’s Cold War spy novels. There are cowardly and double-dealing French, crafty Germans and practical English, all maneuvering for advantage.

In the end, with France’s political opposition about to start calling for Mr. Forgeard’s dismissal, Mr. Chirac being a lame duck and France political players getting ready for an election, Mr. Forgeard’s allies are getting weaker every day. The quieter the Anglos and Germans are the more you can expect to hear noise from the French camp. Time is not on France’s side. Isn’t it amazing the man who recently referred to French politicians as “excited monkeys” now depends on them for his job more than ever?

Ouch. Note to self: watch out what you call the people who may someday decide whether or not you get to keep your job.

The internal breakdown within Airbus [IAG Blog]