Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 8, 1994 TAG: 9409080074
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DIRK BEVERIDGE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FARNBOROUGH, ENGLAND LENGTH: Medium
The mammoth four-engine planes would cost about $8 billion to develop, with a price tag to customers of $200 million apiece, said Jean-Jacques Huber, project manager for the jets still dubbed the A3XX.
By releasing proposed configurations for the jets, Airbus was trying to move a step ahead of rival Boeing Co., which is not yet convinced airlines will be interested in planes that big.
Boeing is nonetheless discussing possible cooperation on such a project with the French, German, British and Spanish members of the Airbus consortium.
``We deal in market reality - we're not floating paper airplanes,'' Boeing spokesman T. Craig Martin said.
Although jets with twice the capacity of existing long-haul airplanes sound alluring for coming decades, when air traffic is forecast to double and then triple, many industry executives have their doubts.
Routes into congested Asian airports are the most likely candidates for the big jets. But if airlines rely less on big hub airports, as they have over the Atlantic, critics say the big planes could become a costly boondoggle.
Supersonic jets could provide another form of competition in the next century. Boeing and McDonnell Douglas Corp. are looking into technology for a big supersonic jet that could fly round-trip between Los Angeles and Tokyo twice a day.
But Airbus thinks there will be a market for 1,000 of the big jets it is considering.
Speaking to reporters at the Farnborough International '94 air show, Huber said the giant jets would weigh more than 1 million pounds when loaded, but he said they could take off and land on airport runways now used by big planes, and use engines now available.
Airbus hopes to complete a feasibility study by 1995, possibly launching the program around 1998 and putting the jets into the air around 2003.
The big jets could fit as many as 10 economy class passengers in each row. But the sheer size of the airplane could give airlines freedom to build rooms on the bottom cargo deck that could be used as fitness centers, business areas or lounges the size of a small apartment, Huber suggested.
The jets would have a range of 7,000 nautical miles or more, depending on the number of passengers, meaning they could fly nonstop on most routes.
by CNB