The end of the A380

It is a wise decision the long haul flight future is rather in the B787/B777 and A350/B340, for short haul is A320NEO & B737NG,

I got personal words from the guy in charge at the time in 2010: people don’t travel that many and that long around earth? and he was not sure for how long they will do that?

Still A380 was huge technology achievement, irrespective of its market sucess

Ibra wrote:

Still A380 was huge technology achievement

Apart from if and the engines being huge, and had great passenger entertainment systems, was there much new technology?

Peter wrote:

was there much new technology?

Engineering it was tricky for those engines (I am more biased toward this ) to support the overall design but they were able to cheat on square-cub law for usable weight and surface area, plus aerodynamics was sophisticated (e.g. computer simulation, fly-by-wire…)

Other than that not much if you are talking about mass travel (B747) or speed (Concord), those also failed because of new market and economic trends (e.g. environment constraints, reserve globalization…)

AdamFrisch wrote:

Sad to see her go

They won’t build any new ones, but the existing ones are not going anywhere, so you will still be able to enjoy flying it. For me the A380 is still the most comfortable plane I have ever flown in, especially from a noise perspective. Though I have not yet been lucky enough to fly either the B787 or A350.
Peter wrote:

was there much new technology?

The RR fan. The central wing box. Welding instead of rivetting. The painting process. The hydraulics system. Al cables. Avionics and HMI. The list is long.

Ibra wrote:

those also failed

I wouldn’t consider the 747 a failure (appart from the -8 version maybe). It just got too old, and no point in making a new one, as it would have suffered the same fate as the A380 (well, the 747-8 sort of did).
I personally avoided 747 as my last experience in Business was quite sad, compared to the new planes. I think the A380 is still the one that surprised me most by silence on take off, and the A350 by the silence in flight (I took my noise cancelling headphones off to go to the toilet and had to check if they had been on in the first place, as the noise difference wasn’t that big). I still really enjoy the 787 windows.
Overall, best experience overall is still the A350, but in reality that’s really because it was Cathay’s new business. People’s perceptions of the plane get really skewed with things like IFE / cabin configuration (Comparing business, The new reverse herringbone Cathay business on a beaten 747 would will likely be a better experience than the awkward BA business on a 787).

I agree totally, especially with the business class “beds” on the 747. I got that once, in 2003, as the outbound leg of a Concorde flight coming back.

In general business class or club class in any passenger jet is wonderful and not even remotely comparable to “sardine class” in any passenger jet. That’s why it costs so much more I haven’t done long haul for years and Justine and I have no interest in it (done so much of it) so these are distant memories…

Peter wrote:

I haven’t done long haul for years

What about those 7h flights you’ve done (From croatia?)?

Mostly I don’t notice what kind of airliner I’m flying aboard, except for A340s which are a bit different. My favorite airliner is the one that gets me to and from at the lowest price, preferably non-stop, overnight – that does more to reduce my travel fatigue than any amount of luxury on board.

I used to get upgraded on every trip due to lots of company paid travel, and the airlines frequent flyer program. That was fine but when it’s my money, I prefer to save it for a nice hotel at the destination.