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a380

Airbus A380's lumbering airshow acrobatics (video)

FARNBOROUGH, England--It's not hard to imagine what a jet fighter might do at an air show--barrel rolls, steeply banked turns, that sort of thing. But most airshows don't have a 525-passenger, four-engine, double-decker passenger aircraft showing off, too.

The Farnborough International Airshow, though, is not just for tourists. It also lets those from the world's airlines and air forces to scrutinize wares before spending millions or even billions of dollars on very expensive capital equipment.

The Airbus A380 is one such potential expense. It's not often you see such an aircraft being pushed closer to its … Read more

Sony debuts three new entry-level dSLRs

Sony announced its three new entry-level dSLRs for 2009, the Alpha DLSR-A230, A330, and A380, which replace the A200, A300, and A350 respectively.

The products preserve Sony's three-tier strategy for its low-end SLRs. The cheap A230 differs from the slightly-less-cheap A330 by the viewfinder and the tiltable LCD, plus the A330 will be available in brown. And except for its higher resolution sensor--14 megapixels versus 10 megapixels--the A380 is otherwise identical to the A330. Sony's big marketing points on these models is lighter weight and friendlier, more point-and-shoot-like guided operation.

But perhaps most notably, these models have dual memory slots, one of which takes SDHC cards and the other Sony's proprietary Memory Stick Duo. I can only imagine the internal politicking it took to pull that off.… Read more

Qantas Airbus A380 designer wins London award

Marc Newson, the Australian industrial designer known for his passion for melding art and technology, was awarded the London Design Medal on Wednesday at the London Design Festival.

Though you may not recognize the name Marc Newson, chances are you recognize Newson's work.

Newson designed the space plane for EADS Astrium in 2007.

The famous "Lockheed Lounge" chair that fetched record-breaking auction sums for a living designer was designed by Newson in 1985.… Read more

Showers at 35,000 feet

I've already raved about the prospect of relaxing in a posh first class on the new Airbus A380, but now Dubai-based Emirates Airlines seems to have raised the bar for in-flight amenities. As the Times of London reported Sunday, Emirates is promising first-class passengers the use of a shower. Details on the first-class cabin and the shower are sketchy, but with its "seven star" Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai knows true (and somewhat ridiculous) luxury.

It's certainly a novel idea, and it would give a new meaning to the idea of the mile-high club, but environmentalists … Read more

Boeing delivers its 1,400th 747

I got an e-mail Friday morning from my contact at Boeing alerting me to the fact that the aerospace giant delivered its 1,400th 747 Thursday.

The lucky recipient of the 747-400 freighter was GE Commercial Aviation Services, which plans to lease the jet to AirBridgeCargo Airlines, a Boeing press release says.

What really struck me about the news is that there are only 1,400 747s. It seems to me that every time I fly through Los Angeles, I see something like a couple hundred of the big planes on the tarmac, half of them owned by Qantas.

Of … Read more

A panoramic peek inside the Airbus A380 cockpit

Wow. I wish I was a pilot.

That's all I could think Monday morning when I came across an amazing panoramic image of the cockpit of an Airbus A380.

I must admit I don't understand most of what I see in the panoramic--I would show an image of it here, but as of this writing, I hadn't gotten permission from the photographer, Gilles Vidal, to do so--but it just looks like one heck of a plane.

This is also one of those great panoramics that lets you move around, zoom in or out, and rotate up or … Read more

Dreaming of first class on the A380

Though CNET News.com's Daniel Terdiman already covered the first commercial flight of the Airbus A380 in his blog, as a fellow aviation nut, I just had to weigh in on the aircraft's interior. This morning I drooled over the photos taken by Luke Anderson from ZDNet Australia on his tour of the Singapore Airlines A380 in Sydney (where can I get that gig?). The pictures of the economy class section are nice, but let's be honest, who really likes economy class? Frankly, I'm more excited about those luxury suites in first class. And who wouldn'… Read more

World's largest passenger plane takes flight

Since I'm kind of an airplane nut--of the amateur variety--this is somewhat of a Homer Simpson moment.

Mmmmmm...A380.

Singapore Airlines flight SQ380, from Singapore to Sydney, took to the air Thursday and in the process made aviation history as the first commercial flight of the long-awaited mammoth flying machine, the Airbus A380.

I've never seen one of these planes up close. But I'm longing to. It recently made its first (test) flight into San Francisco and I was out of town. And sadly, neither Airbus nor Singapore Airlines invited me to take this first flight today. … Read more

San Francisco welcomes the A380

The giant Airbus A380 completed its second U.S. tour today when it landed at San Francisco International Airport. The largest airliner in the skies landed at about 9:30 a.m. this morning after completing a flight from Cincinnati and Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. We weren't on hand to document the arrival--though I would have paid good money to do so--but you can catch video of the arrival from NBC 11.

The A380's visit to San Francisco is significant as SFO was the first U.S. airport to be ready to accommodate the plane's immense … Read more