For pretty much the first time, Patrick has written a pointless and meritless piece. No insight, no information. You don't find it pretty. Fine. But most of us really don't care too much what a plane looks like. We'd rather hear what it's like from the inside.

I've done quite a bit of flying, and in my experience passengers tend to sit on the inside of the plane.

No doubt when people are having their deep vein thrombosis treatment they'll be thinking, 'well at the least the nose that I couldn't actually see was nice'

Aesthetically, the company lost me at the name. "Airbus" is a classic example of a term that not only lost something in the translation, it gained something, and something utterly unattractive. My entire life, I've seen busses as smelly, unnatractive, slightly depressing modes of travel, something I'm sure I share with others in the US.

Maybe this is unfair. It's public transportation. It's greener than other modes perhaps. Who cares, I still find them depressing. "Air taxi" would have been better, or "air metro". Something evoking bygone eras perhaps, "air orient express", or even "air steamer". Anything but "bus".

The 747 and A380 (and C-17, AN124, etc) all demonstrate that it's quite difficult to design a huge aircraft and maintain any sense of style. Sorry Patrick, but the 747 is just as clumsy-looking as the A380, what with that enormous sloping snout and ever-grimy round ass. The A380 would have the same droopy huge shnozz if they'd set the office up high too. Set it low and you get the giant shiny forehead; the Airbus Beluga is a great example of that.

In my book the most graceful, stylish airliner flying these days (since the Convair 880/990 and no I'm not THAT old, I've just seen pictures) is the A340-500. I'm not particularly partisan about Boeing vs. Airbus, and I don't really care what the things look like on the outside. It's what the airlines do to the inside that's of prime concern for passengers, unless you're Patrick smith I guess. What was your point again?

I'll never have the excess income to buy passage in SIA's A380 first-class stateroom, but I'm looking forward to riding in an A380 someday, just as I look forward to a 747 ride, at least til the reality of the cramped quarters, bad food, pinch-butt seat, and sharing the emissions of 400 others sets in, as it will on the 380.

Uh, in defense of Patrick, some of us DO care about what a plane looks like on the outside. It's no different, really, than caring about what a ship or a car or a motorcycle looks like. Besides, aesthetic appreciation is about the only thing left to an airplane geek now that the actual experience of flying is, more often than not, something to dread rather than enjoy. For those of us who spent our childhoods doodling airplanes in the margins of chemistry textbooks, the five best-looking jetliners of all time are (in descending order of prettiness) -

Boeing 747

McDonnell Douglas MD-11

Vickers VC-10

Boeing 707

Hawker Siddeley Trident

Honorable mentions: Airbus A340, Tupolev Tu-154, Lockheed Tristar

The ugliest are -

Douglas DC-8

Airbus A380

Douglas DC-9 (and its derivatives)

Airbus A320

Ilyushin IL-96

As a former sailor I still prefer standing on the bridge than sitting in a plane. Actually the most memorable trip I ever made was as a cadet on a sailtraining ship. And she was ( and still is) a lot more beautiful than either of the two biggy monstroseties from Airbus or Boeing.

Patrick - First, please tell your friends at the the Airliners.net website to update their webpage for the A380 (http://www.airliners.net/info/stats.main?id=29). It still has the plane going into service in March 2006. [heh]

I would also want a second column comparing the 747-8 to the A380, in terms of range, floorspace, operating costs per seat, etc. Please do this for several of the seating configurations for both planes (say "typical" and "maximum"), not just the "maximum" ones that might exaggerate the benefits of the A380 in these areas.

On appearance: I am old enough to remember the three-way fight between the 747, the DC-10, and the L1011. Curiously I would say the L1011 was to me the best looking of the three, but the 747 won based on total capacity/cost/utility long-term (IMHO). I used to see a few L1011's still in service for charter use, but continue to see the DC-10/MD-11's in freighter use, likely due to their larger capacity (which to me was the ugliest of the three, with that huge engine housing jammed into the tail section). So an "ugly" A380 may still win on capacity over the long-term; what we have now is the same kind of "race" as between the DC-10/MD-11 (once Lockheed bowed out of commercial manufacturing), and the Boeing 747. Kind of ironic, given Boeing won that one (eventually buying MD).

Finally, on the point of "maximum" versus "luxury" versions of the A380 - this is no doubt in my mind that the the latter is the only way Airbus will sell enough to reach profitably on this aircraft. One problem the 747-8 creates for the A380 is providing a plane close enough to the lower-end A380 configurations that it will put serious pressure on any airline already flying 747's (e.g., the A380 target market) to maximize common training, servicing, etc. by using 747-8's for some of the less-demanding runs. If this strategy works for Boeing, the A380 will be relegated for use on only the highest-density corridors, where maximum seating plans will be a necessity (as in the London to India route cited elsewhere). Perhaps we will see a "short body" A380 as a response? The more likely result will be an even bigger "stretched" A380 ...

At any rate, much more crowded and uncomfortable flying is the order of the day, and will remain so unfortunately - unless you have money. In this new "Gilded Age", how long before we see the A380 in "segregated" service - with the "First" and "Second"(business) Class passengers on the upper deck, and "Steerage" (economy) on the lower deck? The airlines could then even use segregated gangplanks - er - jetways for access (especially since the "upper class" lounges will be on the upper floors of the terminal anyway). Just like the old days - I can't wait.