I’ll have to give you a race on my Futura then Mogs!

Red Italian 1000cc V-twin sports tourers kick ass!!!

One of these days when I get more time I will post a copy of a document which shows performance evaluation in terms of time to climb to cruise altitudes (a much more relevant issue when considering the type of surroundings most widebodies fly from) for the A340-300 and the B744. Get ready to be surprised! After that we can look at the A340-600 and have yet another remap of popular misconceptions!

Sorry Matt but the question wasn’t a comparison of A340 performance to B777 performance and even then you could argue that the A340 performance is superior as it is adequate to provide certification without having the excess of thrust required for engine failure in a twin. Therefore in terms of being efficient in the way it performs the A340 is superior. How’s that for a debating point!

I had a discussion with an A340 skipper (ex-Eurofighter test and development pilot) yesterday and we concluded that we would like a button similar to one found on the Eurofighter which automatically puts the aircraft into straight and level climbing flight. It would have saved the GulfAir A320. The important thing is that we would like to see the envelope system taken even further, not completely left out a la Boeing.

The 777 would be more superior in technical advances as the airliner is only around 6 or 7 years old.

Sorry but I would have to disagree there. The 777 still harks back to the past with its FBW controlled by a control column. This was demanded by the old atlantic barons of the more major American carriers and is indicative of Boeings refusal to fully come up to date in the 90’s. If you want to see technical innovation take a look at the flight envelope systems provided on Airbus FBW aircraft since the 1980’s.

Furthermore, perhaps someone can define underpowered. Either a commercial aircraft meets performance requirements or it doesn’t get certified. For this they have to be able to meet certain climb gradient criteria with most critical power unit inoperative and in this respect the A340 is a good performer.

I can see a rather easy get out for the insurance company! This is going to cost.

Sorry Matt, I now see you were answering Mark’s answer re the A321 forward avionics cooling inlet.

I’ve known about this for 6 weeks but haven’t been able to say anything. There is potentially a huge market for flights from Lagos to JFK in particular as most of this traffic currently has to route through London. Gawd knows who’d want to be Lagos based though. Not me, that’s for sure!

Danairboy – your lack of understanding has caused you to miss the most vital part of the whole debate…you have absolutely no idea which of the aircraft you have observed were derating their take off thrust. You also have no idea how close to their limiting take off weight they are.

By all means have an opinion but PLEASE try a different tactic than ramming it down our throats. I don’t blame Kev for wondering if you have troll-like tendencies as your netiquette does not tally with the maturity you sometimes claim to possess. Child pretending to be an adult perhaps?