Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

smh.com.au

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 251 posts

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#51

Post by hencq »

herpderperator wrote: post #21

I just got back from a road trip where I visited this boneyard (among other things) in the Mojave Desert.[0][1][2] The airport/planes are all fenced in, but you can still go up to the fence and see them up close. Pretty wild to see so many planes in one place. [0] https://www.dropbox.com/s/wjkmpacv7yvpur5/PXL_20230411_00382... [1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/2pgdlmn7z9ej0rc/PXL_20230411_00433... [2] https://www.dropbox…

I had read about it as a kid and knew it existed, so it was a delight when I drove by it a few years ago on my way to Mount Whitney. "Hey, I know about this place!"

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#52

Post by Reason077 »

InTheArena wrote: post #11
diebeforei485 wrote: post #4

It's a magnificent plane. It's very unfortunate that they launched the "shortened" version. The design and engineering was done for longer fuselage, so it actually has extra structure (and extra weight!) and larger wings than necessary. And it launched just before engines got a lot more efficient. The upside for passengers is that it's still the smoothest flying experience, even in turbulence. Boeing's 747 was incred…

This was a bad misreading of Boeing's financial state - which I think John Leahy eventually fessed up to. The 737 never needed any subsidizing. It is, to this day the most popular delivered jet plan (although the 320 now has more orders). If you count by airframe, the 707 + 737 family still dominates. JL simply never could understand why the A320 wasn't beating the 737 and placed the blame for the A320 not selling be…

Of course the A340 got crushed against the 777: it was a fairly inefficient quad jet in an era that nobody wanted quad jets anymore due to the relaxation of ETOPS rules. The twin A330, however, sold very well and still sells well today (A330neo), as does the larger A350.

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#53

Post by bobthepanda »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #4

It's a magnificent plane. It's very unfortunate that they launched the "shortened" version. The design and engineering was done for longer fuselage, so it actually has extra structure (and extra weight!) and larger wings than necessary. And it launched just before engines got a lot more efficient. The upside for passengers is that it's still the smoothest flying experience, even in turbulence. Boeing's 747 was incred…

The 747 also had incredible product market fit, if only accidentally. They were all designed to be freight compatible, because the 747 was meant to be a stopgap before supersonics dominated the skies. Most 747s have happy second lives as freight workhorses.

The A380 is too heavy to get off the ground with freight packed to the gills.

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#54

Post by Andys »

rootusrootus wrote: post #25
diebeforei485 wrote: post #4

It's a magnificent plane. It's very unfortunate that they launched the "shortened" version. The design and engineering was done for longer fuselage, so it actually has extra structure (and extra weight!) and larger wings than necessary. And it launched just before engines got a lot more efficient. The upside for passengers is that it's still the smoothest flying experience, even in turbulence. Boeing's 747 was incred…

The A380 is pretty smooth, but I found that the way it cruises is not great for me. It tends to surge and glide in a way that prevents me from actually falling asleep, more so than on other smaller planes like a 787. While the 787 might not be as silky smooth taking off and landing, I prefer it for the long term comfort that matters for most of the flight.

Oh, I thought it was just me! All the Airbus planes have horrible autopilots that gradually rise and fall, in a barely noticeable way. I found myself feeling irritated and wished the source code was opensource so I could have a look at it.

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#56

Post by tinglymintyfrsh »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #4

It's a magnificent plane. It's very unfortunate that they launched the "shortened" version. The design and engineering was done for longer fuselage, so it actually has extra structure (and extra weight!) and larger wings than necessary. And it launched just before engines got a lot more efficient. The upside for passengers is that it's still the smoothest flying experience, even in turbulence. Boeing's 747 was incred…

It is. They're just difficult because their wingspan is too damn big to fit in most airports. If they had retractable folding legs like us sardine passengers in economy class, they'd fit like a champ.

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#57

Post by diebeforei485 »

InTheArena wrote: post #11
diebeforei485 wrote: post #4

It's a magnificent plane. It's very unfortunate that they launched the "shortened" version. The design and engineering was done for longer fuselage, so it actually has extra structure (and extra weight!) and larger wings than necessary. And it launched just before engines got a lot more efficient. The upside for passengers is that it's still the smoothest flying experience, even in turbulence. Boeing's 747 was incred…

This was a bad misreading of Boeing's financial state - which I think John Leahy eventually fessed up to. The 737 never needed any subsidizing. It is, to this day the most popular delivered jet plan (although the 320 now has more orders). If you count by airframe, the 707 + 737 family still dominates. JL simply never could understand why the A320 wasn't beating the 737 and placed the blame for the A320 not selling be…

The A340 was badly timed. ETOPS restrictions were loosened, making the 777 the better product for the vast majority of routes.

The A340-500 in particular had great range and was used on the longest nonstop routes for some time, but it was replaced by the A380, 777-200LR, 787-9, and the A350-900.

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#58

Post by nerdbert »

badcppdev wrote: post #27
aziaziazi wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> demand for flying is higher than ever Is it ? Trafic is close to prependemic but still below. > The industry is now just about 15% below 2019 levels of demand [0] [0] https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/2023-releases/2023-04-04-0...

You can tell demand is high because ticket prices are very high. Airlines have opted and are opting to fly fewer planes with higher ticket prices. It's a price over volume optimisation that seems to be in fashion in many industry segments. [0] I will note that some airlines have been affected very badly by issues with rebuilding staffing in ancillary services like luggage and airport security. That uncertainty I thin…

Ticket prices are high because demand in the front of the plane is low. Economy class tickets have to go up a lot to make up for empty first and business seats.

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#59

Post by tinglymintyfrsh »

rob74 wrote: post #19
coredog64 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d be interested in a source for that. The 737 is an unqualified success. IIRC, at the turn of the century, one out of every three commercial flights was undertaken on a 737. (At around the same time, another third would have been DC-9 and derivatives) The 737 wasn’t particularly expensive to design or build. It shares a 41 section with the 707 and 727 for example.

Let's not get too carried away, shall we? At least the 346 people that died in the two 737-MAX crashes would probably question your "unqualified success" statement. But yes, no one can deny that the 737 has been a cash cow for Boeing (for far too long, some would say).

To be fair, the 737 NG fiasco that preceded it isn't well known and it's unknowable how many excess deaths it caused or will cause because there are planes flying around with substandard structural components.

https://christinenegroni.com/boeing-workers-warn-of-737-ng-s...

Re: Qantas is bringing back Airbus A380s from the California desert

#60

Post by WalterBright »

> striving to meet their emissions-reduction goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. This is part of the reason Qantas has invested heavily in kick-starting Australia’s sustainable aviation fuel industry.

This is one of the most destructive frauds otherwise intelligent people are suckered into. It's based on the idiotic notion that a C atom from a biofuel results in "green" CO2 emissions.

The CO2 emitted is exactly the same, and in the same amounts.

Biofuels are destructive in that they cost double, and if done in mass quantity will require an enormous amount of agricultural land to produce.

Post reply on HN