The San Francisco Citizen

Here it is, the latest runway model from Emirates Airlines - the Airbus A380-800, complete with lounges and showers. It’s new, it’s you!

If you’ve never heard of Emirates, you’re not alone. But they’re growing like crazy and they’ll soon become a choice for international travel from the Bay Area. And you’ll be flying in style, in an old-school way. There was no “cattle-car” environment aboard yesterday when this fully-equipped aircraft arrived at SFO.

Watch the video, you’ll see. And check out Wired’s report also. O.K., let’s go.

The largest aircraft ever to come to SFO immediately gets hazed with water canon. Its wings, built larger than necessary in anticipation of the stretched A380-900 model, have an organic gull-wing look. Click to enlarge:

The new Airbus taxis at SFO, San Mateo-Hayward Bridge in the background. 22 huge Goodrich tires help ease the load on runways. 

Look at this - three ways to get on the plane. It’s taking a while for Los Angeles to get their A380 program going. So much so, that Qantas had to lay down the law to LAX. Could Qantas come here to the bay area instead?

“SFO is the first U.S. airport with the built-in capacity to conveniently handle these kinds of passenger planes,” Mayor Gavin Newsom said in a prepared statement. “We are ready for the future of international air travel - which is of great benefit to Bay Area businesses and residents as well as visitors.”

A380 Chief Pilot, Captain Abbas Shaban, pulls up to the newly-embiggened Gate 9 in the International Wing. SFO’s Jim Chiu says that San Francisco is already able to handle three A380 superjumbos at once

The aforementioned Captain Abbas Shaban, having just arrived from New York

A news conference question about air service to Africa from the award-winning BeyondChron.com.

A random shot from the news conference. Do you like these uniforms? Is this a pillbox hat?

All right, all aboard the new plane - let’s go for a ride, after the jump

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It looks like San Francsico will be getting its fair share of Airbus A380 superjumbo jets flying around. Emirates has a “familiarisation flight” scheduled for next month, so maybe you’ll see the biggest passenger jet in the world once again above the Bay Area.

This is what it will look like on August 4, 2008, when a fully-outfitted A380 will touch down at SFO:

via daarkfire’s flickrstream

We’ll have to do with 777-200LR service into SFO until the A380s get into the schedule.

Bon Voyage!

Well, despite the naysayers and against the odds, the General Accounting Office has just determined there were “significant errors” in the process used to pick the best replacement for the Air Force’s aging KC-135 air tanker fleet.

Or course, the boys and girls in blue still want the Airbus 330-based Northrop Grumman KC-30 / KC-45 instead of the Boeing 767-based KC-767. But Boeing has its supporters, like the Center for Security Policy, various Senators, and others, so things will get delayed some more. 

Feel free to take a long drink of Kool-Aid from Family Security Matters, but don’t expect them mention stuff like this or this. Heavens no.

Let’s all agree any KC-X proposal will be a big improvement over the existing KC-135 Stratotanker, the newest of which is 43 years old.

If Boeing had a newer design that was closer to the size of the A330, then things might be different. One of their employees makes some points about this here. Why not just use the newer 777? It’s too big? Or maybe it’s too popular? It sure would be nice for Boeing if they could pull off rigging up a 767 Frankenplane to sell to the U.S. military and then keep the 777 for the civilian market, wouldn’t it?

Boeing folks seem to think they know more about what the Air Force wants than the actual Air Force itself. Oh well.

The longer this replacement program gets put off the worse things get, if anyone over at Boeing cares.

Based on laughable press releases like this, they might not care.  

This KC-135 variant is smaller than an old-school Boeing 707 and older than Methuselah. These 135s are getting expensive to keep on the road.

The U.S. Air Force needs a new tanker and it thinks it wants an Airbus. But according to Boeing, what the Department of Defense really needs is a modified 767. Sure, it doesn’t carry as much fuel, but it has something special: “genius”. That’s right, those who rejected the Boeing Frankenplane “failed to comprehend the inherent manufacturing genius of the 767 bid.”

Well, O.K. then.

Boeing has a great history and the new 787 looks awesome. But that doesn’t mean that any old plane that Boeing can put together will be the best fit for the Air Force.  

Assigned reading: UPI’s Defense Focus: Air tanker war, Parts One, Two, and Three. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN1822838820080318?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0 

Boeing Co. voiced great confidence on Tuesday about winning back longtime girlfriend Becky from European archrival Lars. Boeing told friends he was “as confident as I can be” that “everybody” would find fault with Becky’s choice of the handsome German-French exchange student as her new steady.

On March 10, Chicago-based Boeing said in emotional letter to Becky’s mom that the romantic competition had been skewed against him. In an edited summary of his 3000-word email provided to reporters on Tuesday, Boeing said Lars was a much riskier choice than the tried-and-true Boeing.

In picking Lars, Becky misused her own selection criteria, disregarded Boeing’s dancing skills and breached the rules of romance, Boeing told as many Becky’s classmates as he could find during lunch period.

The result was a relationship “that is fundamentally unfair not only to Boeing, but Becky herself,” the protest summary said.

Despite his stated confidence in reversing the outcome, Boeing, in an email chat with classmates, said he faced an “uphill battle” to persuade Becky’s close friends, who have until P.E to make a recommendation to Becky.

“I think the best I can hope for is another shot” at the competition, he said, referring to a possible re-run of all or part of the love triangle to correct alleged flaws in Becky’s selection process.