Boeing has never knowingly oversold the rival A340's slowness in its own marketing presentations for the 747 and 777.
The slowness of the A340-200/300 is indeed legendary - there's even a painting of a 747-400 in flight where the caption reads: "...and just below can be seen an A340 that is being overtaken". Imagine Airbus's unbridled glee therefore when on the first ever commercial route proving flight of the A380 to New York last week the opportunity came to settle some very high profile public relations scores.
The flight operated in collaboration with future A380 customer Lufthansa was cruising over the Atlantic at M0.85 and was about to slow down to coordinate with the LAX-bound A380 sister flight when the crew spotted one of BA's 747s plying its own lonely furrow to the New World. Never slow to acknowledge the broader irony of the encounter, the Airbus-Lufthansa flight crew accelerated to M0.87 and overtook it. The 747, not to be outdone, responded in kind and crept up to M0.87 as well.
The A380 soon had to drop back to M0.83 for the rest of the way however in an effort to co-ordinate its arrival with the LAX flight. It was still early ahead of schedule - landing at 12.10 at New York Kennedy and slightly ahead of the tandem LAX flight whose distinctly imaginative landing repertoire caused several raised eyebrows on either side of the continent.
By Aimee Turner
Photo by SIS Photos
The slowness of the A340-200/300 is indeed legendary - there's even a painting of a 747-400 in flight where the caption reads: "...and just below can be seen an A340 that is being overtaken". Imagine Airbus's unbridled glee therefore when on the first ever commercial route proving flight of the A380 to New York last week the opportunity came to settle some very high profile public relations scores.
The flight operated in collaboration with future A380 customer Lufthansa was cruising over the Atlantic at M0.85 and was about to slow down to coordinate with the LAX-bound A380 sister flight when the crew spotted one of BA's 747s plying its own lonely furrow to the New World. Never slow to acknowledge the broader irony of the encounter, the Airbus-Lufthansa flight crew accelerated to M0.87 and overtook it. The 747, not to be outdone, responded in kind and crept up to M0.87 as well.
The A380 soon had to drop back to M0.83 for the rest of the way however in an effort to co-ordinate its arrival with the LAX flight. It was still early ahead of schedule - landing at 12.10 at New York Kennedy and slightly ahead of the tandem LAX flight whose distinctly imaginative landing repertoire caused several raised eyebrows on either side of the continent.
By Aimee Turner
Photo by SIS Photos
on March 28, 2007 5:19 PM | Reply
Neat story, misleading title. I'm not very good at math, but I never knew that 0.87m > 0.87m... I guess "Biggest and just as fast" just doesn't have that ring to it, does it?
on March 29, 2007 7:29 PM | Reply
Bigger, faster. Doesn't that mean more fuel burn?
on March 29, 2007 9:54 PM | Reply
talk about boeing haters and airbus lovers
on April 13, 2007 6:11 AM | Reply
In terms of economic cruise, I think the 747 will remain the fastest plane in the sky. The current 744 was listed at .855, and when customers complained, airbus waved thier magic wand and set the spec sheet at the same .855.
Fuel burn Vs speed depends on alot of things, and I doubt that as the speeds increase the better aerodynamics of the A380 will offset its large frontal area, and lack of wing sweep. The 747 however has severly swept wings for a modern airliner, and thus really WANTS the extra speed. the 747-8 will only reinforce this more as the wing gets a reprofile to the current level of design knowledge yet keeps the same sweep so they don't have to pay for a whole new wing.
Oh and BTW, I've heard of many times a 747 needing to make up time back in the days of cheaper fuel cranking up the cruise to Mach .89 It still happens some today when they MUST make a hard cutoff time for landing at thier destination airport.
on April 18, 2007 4:59 AM | Reply
I believe the Boeing 747 was originally designed for very high cruise speeds (back when fuel costs were not a concern), hence the very high wing sweep (highest ever on a subsonic commercial aircraft).
The 747 was designed during the when speed was king. The Convair 880 and 990, and the Boeing 720 and 727 were all designed to fly very fast.
The 747SP was intended to be faster than the regular 747s.
The 747SP, and later the 747-300 and 747-400 benefit from the area rule, as the upper level terminates just as the wings start.