We are witnessing the dying throes of “Ego Driven Airplanes”. Airbus was merely the most recent tool of huge egos demonstrated by the Concorde and now the ill fated A380.
Having ridden on the Concorde three times, it was pleasant to be at 65,000 feet, sipping martinis cradled in a block of ice and cruising at Mach 2, but the market is not there. Nor is the market at the opposite extreme, a lumbering, old fashioned (in the fuel sipping new age) flying warehouse with 800 passengers.
The egos that have driven this monstrosity have already passed on. Chirac will be the last, and will be remembered less well than the A380.
What will be remembered is the clash that has been ignited between the labor unions at English, German and French production facilities.
