The 747 looks like an imperious shark.

The A380 looks like a friendly dolphin.

In just seven short years, Bush's gunslinger "my way or the highway" style of diplomacy, coupled with the bungling of the most under-achieving Secretary of State we've ever had, has left our former allies with so little confidence in America that they are left to go their own way.

And Dubai is poised to become a financial and business hub strategically located where east meets west, between the growing markets of Southwest and Southeast Asia and Western Europe. New York is just a shabby, out-of-the-way place now. Don't believe it? Then why did Halliburton move lock stock and barrel to Dubai earlier this year? Count the number of European and Asian companies with headquarters in Dubai. Countries are making the Euro the currency of first resort instead of the U.S. dollar.

"Oh, but that's good for our export business," some people say. But that's only good if we have something to export. The Chinese have totally beat us in manufacturing, India is beating us in technology, and now the Europeans are bitch-slapping Boeing around.

Boeing's failure to win big in high-stakes Dubai is not just because they couldn't get a new model ready as fast as Airbus did. A good part of it is an indication of how the Bush administration has insulted and bullied the Middle East and this is just "blowback."

We have one more year of our rodeo clown/dime store cowboy and then we have a chance to start building the relationships and the trust he squandered. It will take decades, if ever, that we heal these rifts. Who will do it, the bellicose, saber-rattling Giuliani? Who will he get for Secretary of State, Bernie Kerik or maybe his wife Judi?

Pat, study those charts and landing patterns for Dubai. I have a feeling America will be beating a path to their door in coming years and not the other way around.

"Emirates Airline has placed the largest single order in airline history, worth $31.7 billion, for Airbus A380s and A350XWBs. A second order with Boeing for 777s brought the morning's total business up to $34.9 billion. The plan includes orders and options for 11 Airbus A380s, 120 A350XWBs and 12 Boeing 777s. The 93 firm orders (81 for Airbus, 12 for Boeing) alone are worth some $23.4 billion. Emirates now has a total orderbook of 246 aircraft, worth more than $60 billion.

"HH Sheikh Ahmed commented, "Dubai's development strategy will bring heavy traffic into this part of the world. Media City, Aviation City, Heath City, the Sports City -- all those people need to be connected to Dubai and to the world. Emirates needs new aircraft to support all the new projects in Dubai-- to catch up with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed and everything that he is doing. And this is not the end of it. Emirates will buy more aircraft."

"The scale of Emirates' latest Airbus order is simply colossal. The agreement covers firm orders for 50 A350-900s and 20 A350-1000s, plus 50 options for A350-900s. Emirates firmed up orders for eight A380s on which it had earlier signed Letters of Intent, but also placed another three firm orders to bring its A380 fleet up to 58.

"Emirates order for the A350XWB is a breakthrough for Airbus and a serious defeat for Boeing's all-conquering 787. Boeing and General Electric have been unwilling or unable to develop the 787-10 version that Emirates feels its needs and in the completely revised A350XWB Emirates has found an aircraft that it likes.

The A380 is in many respects an engineering marvel. You have to feel sorry for Airbus after the cost overruns and delays. I suspect that, in spite of its per passenger fuel efficiency, depreciation and maintenance are going to lower its profitability.

I used to wonder why Patrick thinks the A380 is so ugly. Then I saw the inaugural flight on CNN.

It's not the nose. It's the profile. This plane is huge, very long, yet in the air in profile it looks short and stubby, because it is so fat top to bottom.

When I started flying 20+ years ago, most of my long-hauls were on 747s, and I got used to them. But lately I have became accustomed to the more comfortable, less crowded A330 and 777. Then I happened to fly a 747 again, and was shocked by the size and feeling of crowding.

But two things are far worse than riding on a 747. One is boarding, at Heathrow, in a dynamically assigned gate that was designed for a 737, with a huge line down the hall. You get mixed up in the crowd of passengers shuffling through trying to get to the other gates in the same terminal.

The other is waiting half an hour to deplane at the other end, followed by waiting an hour for your bags to appear when the plane is full. The A380 will far surpass the 747 in both respects.

I want to fly an A380 once, to see what it is like inside. But I will only do it without checked baggage. And not from Heathrow until they fix it.

Engineers do design primarily around function. But great design is attractive as well, most of the time (Guppies are always ugly). The Concorde is a brilliant example of classic European design. The only time it does not look absolutely gorgeous and elegant is on final approach, with its nose too high, droop nose cocked down, and its gangly looking main undercarriage dangling below. But you can imagine it pouting at the indignity of having to slow down and land, two activities that run counter to its raison d'etre.

If it's safe and efficient and can operate in the system without disrupting everything, why should we care if the A380's appearance is unconventional? The design of air transports has been essentially unchanged since the 1930s, and the technical compromises made back then are becoming real problems today.

We've come a long way from the Sopwith Camel, which had the pilot on top of the fuselage. The Boeing 747 flight deck's height above the landing gear and runway makes landings a bit more difficult; Airbus' engineers are to be admired for ameliorating that problem.

Two loading bridges? Actually, it's a pity that we can't find a way to have four or six. It's horribly inefficient to funnel all the hundreds of passengers through a single door and down one or two narrow aisles. Air transport is becoming like sea transport, where the passenger handling, boarding and debarking process takes hours, but air transport doesn't take days in transit.

We need larger aircraft if we are ever to reduce the numbers of airplanes in the air traffic system. We need to find ways to discourage airlines' down-gauging, reducing the size of aircraft, and a big, efficient Airbus can help.

Yes, we need to solve the weight and "footprint" problem that can break airport pavements. The other airport issues may be even more difficult: larger concourses and gate areas to accommodate more passengers, extra international inspections facilities, more inspectors, more baggage handlers and more baggage handling capacity, more access roads and more auto parking areas.

Maybe a good first step would be constructive, dispassionate commentary.