Airbus A380 ~ a bigger, smarter flying dolphin?
This ad at Newsweek.com came as quite a surprise today:
It was a big web ad (coming in at 336 X 850 pixels), so I shrank it down to fit in the space here. My first thoughts were, "What does a dolphin have to do with the biggest airplane ever made?"
I followed through to their site here, and discovered one mildly disconcerting image:
I think that they may actually have designed this plane to look like a dolphin. I know this sounds crazy, but you hear about car companies designing cars based on their facial expressions, so why wouldn’t an airline? Look at both of the above images. Maybe it’s a stretch, but you never know.
Now, go to their website and watch Episode 1 where you’ll see these four paradises:
After being told that the plane is a greener rainforest, a cleaner archipelago, and a quieter lake, we apparently learn that the dolphin means that the plane is smarter too. Paradise indeed, unless something better comes along (like the Boeing Dreamliner?).
At the A380 website, also scroll through and check out the opening still shots of Episode 5 (dolphin shadow puppet), Episode 7 (crazy "Water Ingestion" shot that looks like the plane is exploding upon landing — then inside the video you will read "873 People Left the Aircraft in 78s"), and 14 (dolphin-faced airplane).
My first exposure to this plane was in a course at Harvard Business School that I took in grad school. In class one day, an Airbus company executive came to give us a presentation on the new jet. I remember it being one of the weirdest, most politically sensitive presentations that I had ever attended. It wasn’t like they were trying to fool us into believing in the plane; it was more like they were trying to fool themselves.
Do they really believe in these images that they’re portraying themselves as today? If not, the executive sounded totally convinced that the market for their planes would be strong enough because of the growing populations and economies of places like China and India. They knew that they had bet the company with this plane and were probably a little afraid of what might happen.
This plane at the moment seems to please only one portion of one side of the travel equations: the long-haul airlines who would love to be able to pack a ton of people in. Boeing, in contrast, took bigger, more visible design steps with their Dreamliner and focused on both the business side and the passenger side of the equation. For example, the idea that the air quality can be improved because humidity levels can be increased thanks to the composite materials will mean a lot to frequent travelers (could reduce jet lag!). Does it use less fuel too? Great! And if they also follow through on wider seats, I’m 100% sold. And so, too, might the angry man who commented on the Southwest Airlines post.
Airbus seemed to be saying the whole time that the airlines could make the planes more comfortable IF the airlines chose to do so. Of course they’re not going to because they will need to sell those seats to get that plane off the ground profitably.
There is a big difference between a plane that people are afraid to fly initially and a plane that people want to try out because the manufacturer addressed some of their concerns? Not to mention that the real cost of the A380, for things like runway overhauls, were shifted off to other parties (thank you taxpayers).
Unless there are serious flaws in the Boeing Dreamliner, I think that this market is definitely not dolphin safe. Smarter?
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Posted on October 28, 2007
Filed Under Dolphins and Whales, Medium to Paradise, Travel |
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