hi,
i asked myself a question the other day in response to the airbus a380 would boeing be increasing the capacity of the 747 in a new veriant, i know about there new 7E7 project and the new 747-400ER veriant but i was thinking will boeing bring up a suprise to airbus by deveopling a new aircraft and the releasing the final thing close to the release date of the a380, they cant be doing nothing it to big of a risk and to big of a market percentage to lose.
Rhino
By: Bhoy - 18th March 2003 at 21:37
Boeing can’t just have something up their sleeve… they can’t just say ‘ok, here’s our brand spanking new aicraft (a misnomer from Boeing if there ever was one…). Now, who wants to buy it?…
The point is, they’ve already missed the boat for the top end of the market’s orders, as those that can afford that size of aircraft have already commited to Airbus.
Aircraft aren’t something you order today and pichk up tomorrow…
By: rhinoofstockton - 18th March 2003 at 21:12
this may be true but i still think that boeing has something up its sleeve and they arent telling anyone about it… but who knows they make there own decisions
By: mongu - 17th March 2003 at 23:46
There is another thread on the 7E7, which goes into this issue – basically, the consenus seems to be that the market for very big jets is not big enough for both A and B, so B have ceded this market seeing as how the A380 programme is too advanced for Boeing to play catch up.
As to whether or not B will try to pick at the A380 market by making fairly inexpensive tweaks to the 747, I don’t know. The 747-400QXLR (or whatever it was called!) looks good but there is no indication it will ever leave the drawing board.
I will say one thing though, B has won the aesthetic battle. I am one of the herd in preferring the A320 to the 737, but the 747 is much easier on the eye than the A380!
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March 17, 2003 at 5:39 pm