Politics and the Airbus

[Flying Freddie]

If JetBlue gets the airplanes for free it means no profits for the French. If I were Boeing I would get Airbuses for free and paint Boeing on the side. No one will know!
Viva La Difference!

 

[BLUE BAYOU]

Anyone like to purchase an historic French WWI or WWII field rifle? It is in excellent shape-- never been fired and only dropped once!!!

 

[FR8mastr]

There is one BIG difference, you can use the rudder in the Boeing.

 

[Skank]

Can you use the rudder? Wow, I thought it was just there to rest your feet on.

 

[Flying Freddie]

As I remember the 737 may have had more rudder problems than the Airbus. UAL At Colorado Springs and USAIR 427 into PIT. Bon Apetit!

 

[kwijybo]

You are kidding, right

This has got to be a joke right? Buy Boeing over Airbus because of current events. Puuhlease. If you can drop the flag and turn down the music, you need to look at more than the 'cheese eating surrender monkeys' current take on world events. I hate to break this to you, but there are somethings that America is not the best at. Cars and our public education system come to mind.

What is the answer? To just say, we don't care, we are going with the US product all the way, price and quality be darned. Hardly the American way. How about challenging Ford (or Boeing) to come up with a superior product at a fair price. Americans are pretty resourceful when we want to be. I much rather that route be taken than the, 'we don't like you and are taking our ball home' route. Heck, there is a reason not to use anything. My wife won't eat California grapes because the pesticides used in them cause a high rate of cancer amongst the pickers. You thought you had it rough- she went to Berkeley and worked for Clinton.....

dgs, you are right on the money.

As for the EU and seeing us weaker, of course. For a while now, those countries have been relegated to third row note takers at NATO exercises. They made decisions to Socialize their countries and forgo there military. Look to the north for that as well. Why do you think they banded together in the first place? This is a pilot board, not a political board so I won't digress. I was a poli-sci major. Two golden rules- all politics are local, and follow the money. I am sure if you look into those two statements, you will find some answers as to why France doesn't want to join in our post war parade in a couple of weeks.

It's all good.

 

[rightrudder]

Airbus has developed it's market share and is expanding it through undercutting the pricing of Boeing. How do they do that? The Goverments of the consortium countries have directly subsidized the Airbus Industries to allow them to win contracts.

 

[dgs]

payback

rightrudder -- If that's true, then we are buying airplanes subsidised by European taxpayers. Maybe it's a little payback for all the tax dollars we sent their way after WW II.

If the competition entices Boeing to build a better product at a better price, then that would be a good thing. Nothing Boeing makes now (with the possible exception of the 777) can come close to matching the technology in the A320, much less the newer Airbusses.

FR8mastr -- BIG difference between an A300 and an A320. Once airborne, I should never have to touch the rudder unless I've lost an engine or both Flight Augmentation Computers (FACs). Airbus is kind enough to provide three (count 'em 3) other places to put my feet besides the rudder pedals!

 

[typhoonpilot]

An interesting thread. First of all, bigred, that is a hilarious look at the French military. I do believe they had a victory at Hastings in 1066 though.

I like the Boeing philosophy more than the Airbus philosophy and would like to stay on a Boeing for the rest of my career. The 777 is an awesome piece of technology and with the electronic checklist I believe it is superior to any Airbus in production. That plus the ability the pilot has to override the protective logic if necessary makes it a more acceptable fly-by-wire design. That said, Boeing the corporation has been resting on it's laurels for too long and is letting Airbus surpass it in both design and market share.

Once upon a time Boeing was willing to bet the company on a new design, i.e. the 747. Even the 757/767 was a pretty daring idea in the 1970s. In the last few years it seems they have picked up the McDonnell Douglas management ability to spend billions of dollars on ideas that have no practical concept, i.e. Sonic Cruiser.

I left a good job at Boeing because I was working in Long Beach and could see the idiotic decisions taking place first hand. The MD-11 had a lot of production potential as a cargo aircraft and airlines like Lufthansa had to threaten to never buy a Boeing again unless they produced their option aircraft. Boeing and their leader Phil Condit are making some really dumb decisions. What is this idea of moving the HQ to Chicago to be closer to the customer all about ? Closer to what customer ? United and American are already solidly in the Boeing line. I've seen stupid decisions like this throughouot my career. They are made by men who just want to look like they are doing something in the absence of any bright ideas for the future of their company.

Boeing needs to get on the ball and produce airplanes that companies are willing to buy at an affordable price. The new high efficiency aircraft might work, but it needs to be a little bigger. Unfortunately Boeing is located in the United states and they are too close to the moronic RJ philosophy users. My present company thinks the A-330 is too small and they can't wait for the A-380 because they need the capacity. That is true for most of the International Airlines in Europe and Asia. Even the useless MBAs running U.S. airlines will realize bigger airplanes for Trans Atlantic and Trans Pacific routes will be the wave of the future. Unfortunately Boeing is 5 years behind Airbus in that contest and will lose the entire market for that category of aircraft by trying to market a slightly bigger 747.

Typhoonpilot

 

[Buckeye]

I can't remember the last time I saw a well aged AB still flying around, but I do seem to recall seeing old Boeing's still flying and still generating revenue. I know of very few all AB airlines. I know of many all Boeing airlines, infact I know of many Boeing airlines that have augmented themselves with some AB. I don't know of any AB airlines that have augmented themselves with Boeings.