Driving to Bristol earlier, we were extraordinarily luck to see The new A380 fly past as it flew over the city - One of two fly-pasts it did near plants where it was constructed before flying on to Heathrow, where they’re testing the specific facilities for the aircraft.
It was a magnificent sight. Even though I’d been watching it on the news flying over Wales about 40 minutes before, nothing gave any real warning about how simply vast this plane is until you see it in the air, seemingly defying a select number of gravity laws! It’s wing-span is massive, and there was a real air of grace about it as it banked above us. The dark and stormy clouds ensured the white aircraft was starkly visible in the sky.
I’m still in two minds about it though. It just seems too big to be viable (I get nervous enough on 747’s), and whilst there are ‘green’ arguments (less fuel used per passenger; better engines), it’s still a lot of fuel to shift a heavy piece of metal about for a few heavy bags of water to get somewhere warmer than where they were, and such. It’s also intriguing that whilst Airbus’s strategy has been to build bigger aircraft, rival Boeing has built smaller - longer distance - aircraft. In a sense Airbus is going for the ’spoke/trunk’ approach (a few key routes, with spoke airports feeding it with smaller aircraft), whilst Boeing for regional airports opening more direct flights.
In that sense, I suppose the Airbus approach in perhaps better, as increasing demand for air travel is slowly being met with more resistance by people living close by, as well as the green lobby campaigning for a curb or even a reduction in the number of flights.
That all aside, we’re still delighted to have seen the aircraft. It’s a small moment in history, busy making the headlines today, and it made a trip that was otherwise rather worrying all the more enjoyable (we were taking my father in to the Bristol Royal Infirmary for his scheduled heart-valve operation: More on that later).
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