Niall O'Keeffe, managing editor of sister title Flight International, sends this report:

Few were spared when jovially combative AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes addressed Airbus's Innovation Days event in Toulouse yesterday.

Once Fernandes had exhausted his reserves of magnanimity with a fulsome tribute to outgoing EADS chief Louis Gallois - after whom AirAsia has named its 100th A320 -no one was safe. First to get it in the neck during the special guest's wide-ranging speech was no less a luminary than Germany's Chancellor. "The [A320 delivery] ceremony was suppose to be in the evening but Louis had a meeting with this woman. Her name is Angela Merkel. I don't know why he dumped her for me. I'm much better looking... But I suppose the German Chancellor is more important than someone who's bought 375 planes." Cue much squirming among the Airbus contingent, and much guffawing elsewhere in the room.

At least one Liverpool-supporting journalist in the audience was highly gratified when the soccer-obsessed Fernandes trained his sights on a certain rival club. "As a small brand, we sponsored Manchester United," he recalled. "Very painful for me to sponsor Manchester United because I hate that football club. But you have to be a prostitute once in a while."

Or, as he put it more diplomatically: "We only had seven planes, but we went out there and sponsored Manchester United, and we were there with huge brands: Vodafone, Budweiser. But we were never afraid. Many airlines don't see the value of branding and we wouldn't have grown from 200,000 passengers to 32 million without the branding we did."

Still on the soccer theme, a more self-deprecatory note was struck when the low-cost airline supremo - who owns London club Queen's Park Rangers - spoke about AirAsia's decision to sponsor the UK's Premier League referees. "This has haunted me, because my club's had the most people sent off," he lamented. "I will be stopping sponsoring the referees. But it's been fantastic."

How did he land the deal in the first place? "I went to the Premier League, and it was me versus Emirates, and Emirates had a gazillion dollars, and I had about 10. So I made a big presentation and said, 'Listen, you've got to support us. There's about two people in Dubai who watch football, and in Malaysia we've been watching football for a hundred years - plus, we've been fixing all your games. All the bookies come from Malaysia.' Finally, I think I got it because I said, 'I want to sponsor the red card.' And they looked at me and said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'When you send a player off, I want to see airasia.com - and on the other side it says: now you're suspended, have a holiday with AirAsia.'"

Involvement in soccer allows AirAsia to brand itself "the airline with balls", Fernandes explained, noting, needlessly: "In Asia you don't do these things, but we do it."

Naturally, the former music-industry executive found time to tear into local competitor Singapore Airlines: "If you really look closely at Singapore stewardesses, they all look the same. They have the same bun in their hair, the same lipstick, the same nail polish, and the same fake smile. I'm sure they're manufactured in Lee Kuan Yew's back garden."

The taunting didn't stop there, "When we went to Singapore, we decided to be a bit cheeky, and we took this ad out and we put four of our girls there, and we said, 'There's a new girl in town. She's twice the fun and half the price.' Instantaneously, everyone in Singapore knew us, and I received 50,000 letters from Singaporeans who said, 'Whatever we do we will fly AirAsia.'" Later, he had another dig. "Singapore Airlines is a confused puppy," he declared, citing the "ridiculously named" subsidiary Scoot. And he sounded a warning: "One day I'm going to buy Singapore Airlines."

With tongue firmly in cheek, Fernandes availed of the Q&A session to deliver an analysis of flight-crew compensation. "Pilots are paid too much. All they do is taxi to the runway, take off, switch on autopilot and then bitch about the company for the next two hours."

All in all, this was a rant to remember. Michael O'Leary and Akbar Al Baker will have to go some way to top it.

For hard news from Airbus's Innovations Day event, visit flightglobal.com/pro

Simply driving onto the Farnborough airfield show ground is enough to start my feelings of anticipation grow as I drive to a pre-Farnborough Air Show 2012 press briefing.

I love Farnborough, always have since my first visit as a kid in 1974 (the Blackbird was there - now that was cool). Some of my friends in the media hate Farnborough (or Paris, take your pick), but I've always loved the intensity of these industry fanfares.

For those of us who have visited Farnborough countless times over the years it is a familiar place. There are the classic chalet rows, which have been virtually unchanged for decades. The four main halls scale the steps that lead up from static aircraft parking area.

The organisers of Farnborough, with chief executive Shaun Ormrod to the fore, are doing their best to keep the show relevant and customer friendly. There are lots of special features, like the Aviation Security Zone (sponsored by Flightglobal partner FLIR Systems), an Innovations Zone, a Futures Day and a Space Zone.

Ormrod tells the press corps that "2012 is looking like it's going to be a really great show". Here's why:

* 98% of the chalet space is sold (only 2 units left)

* 100% of the halls are sold and there is a waiting list

* The aircraft static park is full and there is a waiting list.

For now the flying display is OK but not overwhelming (the Red Arrows will be there of course).

Russia's Yakovlev Yak-130 trainer is coming, which is nice but not exactly earth-shattering news. No word on whether Boeing's 787 or 747-8 will be either flying, flying past or on static. Boeing promises news on its presence shortly.

The coolest new arrival is ground-based - for the time being. After much persuasion from the Farnborough team, Virgin Galactic has agreed to bring its SpaceShipTwo mock-up to the show.

This will be the first time Virgin Galactic has shown SS2 in Europe. Now that is cool.

The press briefing is over and the countdown clock to Farnborough 2012 is ticking.

Flightglobal will be there covering the show via our fantastic show landing page, our mobile app, interactive Flight Daily News, the Flight Daily News paper and much more!

Don't forget our Live Streaming of the air display - which will be found via Flightglobal.com.

Bring on the show!

...plus c'est la même chose. This month marks the 60th anniversary of the first jet passenger service - operated, as I'm sure we all know, by a beautiful BOAC de Havilland Comet.

And while I could use this anniversary as an excuse to drone on about the Comet and all that it promised for British aviation prior to its grounding after a spate of tragic accidents two years after its debut, I thought it would be more appropriate to reflect on what that sunny day in May represented for the world and globalisation.

More than any other moment during the 109 years since the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, 2 May 1952 revolutionised air transportation and marked the start of the modern era of jet travel. For when those 36 passengers departed London (Heathrow) Airport bound for Johannesburg, much of what they experienced for the first time as members of the public has not changed one bit in the ensuing six decades.

After the flight lifted off from Heathrow's runway 27L (okay, it was called runway No 5 back then), the Comet climbed to an initial cruising height of 36,000ft (FL360) and a speed of 525mph (845km/h or 460kt TAS), and later climbed as high as FL400. Passengers on tonight's flight BA57 to JNB on board a 747-400 will no doubt be experiencing a not dissimilar flight profile (but without the five refuelling stops!). 

Prior to the arrival of the Comet, air passengers lumbered around at heights no greater than 25,000ft in the piston and early turboprop airliners of the day. So in 1952 the Comet - as the world's first operational jet transport - delivered for the first time a flying experience to the air passenger that would differ little in terms of speed and height for the foreseeable future (with the exception of those lucky enough to experience Concorde during its 27-year reign).

The onboard environment is of course a different story. The Comet's narrow cabin (above, via British Airways) was one area that harked back to the immediate post-war era in which it was spawned. It had just 36 seats arranged in a fairly cosy layout, with a club eight arrangement in a forward, private cabin (often the preserve of the Hollywood set, apparently) and the remaining 28 seats in the main cabin - all four abreast. Aft of the cabin was the entry foyer and "dressing rooms and toilets - ladies port and gentlemen's starboard". 

This was a world away from the first class cabins of today's long-haul network carriers (Etihad's illustrated), but there is no doubt that the Comet's occupants still found themselves in a quieter, smoother and more comfortable world than anything they had experienced previously when on board one of the lumbering, propeller-driven predecessors.

That first jet service to Johannesburg took 23h 38min, and was flown by BOAC Comet Yoke Peter, shaving an amazing 17h off the existing service operated by a Douglas DC-6B. The return fare in 1952 was £315.The flight arrived in JNB two minutes ahead of schedule after a routing which involved refuelling stops in Rome, Beirut, Khartoum, Entebbe and Livingstone. There were two crew changes - one in Beirut (where Capt Michael Majendie was relieved by Capt J Marsden) and the other in Khartoum (where Capt Cliff Alabaster DSO, DFC (the former BSAA pilot who crewed the first ever flight from Heathrow in 1946) took over for the final legs to Johannesburg). 

Such was the novelty that de Havilland's jet delivered to civilians in terms of high altitude cruising, that a book - Comet Highway - was commissioned to celebrate the views from the Comet's passenger windows. As the book summarised it so succinctly in its foreword: with the arrival of the Comet "the World would never be the same again".

It added: "Swift and secure high-altitude flight is no longer the prerogative of the specialist few, for the Comet has brought it to the multitude, and many thousands of everyday travellers have already experienced the wonders of jet flight at eight miles a minute in a magic world eight miles above the levels of the oceans."

I couldn't have put it better - de Havilland, the Comet and BOAC: We salute you!

Read Flight's news report on the World's first jet airliner service, in its 9 May 1952 edition, here (from our archive)

Lufthansa celebrated the arrival of its first Boeing 747-8I on Wednesday in a hangar at Frankfurt airport, where 1,200 invited employees - and a few journos - got a chance to preview the latest iteration of Jumbo Jet.

Clockwise from top left: 747-200B, -200B (new colours), -8I and -400 

Lufthansa will have the honour of debuting Boeing's sixth iteration of passenger-carrying 747 when it puts the new jet into service on 1 June between Frankfurt and Washington Dulles. Four more of the 362 seaters are due to arrive this year, with 15 more slated to be delivered through 2013-2015. Other destinations that should be graced by the Lufthansa 747-8I this year include Chicago, Los Angeles, New Delhi and Bangalore.

Upper deck - 1975 versus 2012

Lufthansa has been a big fan of Boeing's big jet right from the start. It has already taken delivery of almost 60 passenger 747s, has flown many of the variants including 747-100, -200B/200B combi, -200F, -400/400 combi and now -8I. It was also the first to introduce the type in Europe in April 1970 (between Frankfurt and New York).

First class in the nose - 1975 versus 2012

And apart from its very early 747-100s - which were Pratt & Whitney powered - all have been equipped with General Electric turbofans. The latest iteration is of course powered by a derivative of the GEnx developed for the 787.  

Sadly, Lufthansa also had the ominous distinction of being the first airline to suffer a 747 fatal accident, when one of its -100s crashed on take-off from Nairobi in November 1974.

Jumbo cabin cabin crew now - and then

Given Lufthansa's four decades of 747 history, it is appropriate to use the arrival of the first 747-8I to examine how Jumbo cabin fashions have evolved over the ages.  

Remarkably, Lufthansa's original 747-100 seat count was just one different from today's 747-8I - 361 versus 362. But that is where the similarities end. That first aircraft had 28 first class seats and the rest was economy. Today's -8I has just eight first class seats (all located in the nose section) and 92 in business. The remaining 262 are economy.

First class on board the -400 in the 1990s - and now on board the 747-8I

Another big difference between 1970 and 2012 is the upper deck. These were originally used as lounge or break-out zones for premium passengers to relax in en route. Today's -8I with an extended upper deck that is similar in area to the cabin of a 737-700, puts the space to good use by accommodating 32 business-class passengers in luxury that far surpasses first class from four decades ago.  

The 747's cockpit has changed quite a lot over the years too, primarily through the elimination of the flight engineer and his associated panel. However pilots converting from the 747-400 will struggle to tell the difference when they step on to the flightdeck of a -8I, as this is one area where little has changed between 1989 and 2012. But that speaks volumes for how advanced the -400's cockpit was back then when it was first introduced....

Read more about Lufthansa's 747-8I introduction and how it will operate alongside its Airbus A380s here, and view video on board the new Jumbo here

And check out Lufthansa's impressive 747-8 micro-site here

Below: First and latest - Lufthansa's original 747-100 series and its new 747-8I