by expat » Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:51 pm
A couple of things come to mind here. Firstly, US aircraft manufacturers do their damndest to try and sell to the rest of the world, often at the expense of home grown products. However when it comes to the US buying a foreign product, all we hear about is how bad this is for the US, jobs and the economy etc. Strikes me as a bit of do as we say, not as we do.
Secondly, this conversation is all about who is against Boeing and who is for Boeing and not what the better product is. The Boeing monthly production figure in comparison to Air Bus are plus or minus an aircraft or two the same. Up until Boeing ramped up it's monthly production rate of the 737 to 31 aircraft an month, Air Bus had been producing 30 A320's from the get go. So to say that Boeing production rate is greater is a non starter. OK over the history of the company, they have produced 1000's more aircraft than Air Bus, but what counts is what is possible today, not yesterday.
Thirdly, hands up those who actually work on the aircraft here. Loyalties are great, but the guys who have to have hands on each and every day are also an important factor in the equation. As hard as a pill it is to swallow, Boeing are still using quite a lot of old airframe designs and just putting new technology in the same space. A fine example of this is the 737-800. If I had to choose between the 737-800 and the Air Bus A320, the 320 every time. The aircraft was designed at the same time as the technology that was going into it and that you notice every time you have to do anything to the aircraft.
My vote goes to Air Bus, but only because they are easier to work on and when you are coming to the end of a night shift, for me it is all that counts. But at the end of the day, as in every Boeing Air Bus thread that has been opened in SimV, we are all going to have to agree to disagree.
Matt
"A bit of a pickle" - British translation: A catastrophically bad situation with potentially fatal consequences.
PETA
People Eating Tasty Animals.
B1 (Cat C) licenced engineer, Boeing 737NG 600/700/800/900 Airbus A318/19/20/21 and Dash8 Q-400
1. Captain, if the problem is not entered into the technical logbook.........then the aircraft does not have a problem.
2. And, if you have time to write the fault on a napkin and attach to it to the yoke.........you have time to write it in the tech log....see point 1.
