Jay Honeck wrote:

Yee-hah! Don't get too close to this whale...

Change in Rules
Needed for Wake
Of Big New Jet

By ANDY PASZTOR and DANIEL MICHAELS
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 22, 2005; Page B1

Airliners may have to fly twice the normal distance behind the new
Airbus A380 superjumbo jet to avoid potential hazards from its
unusually powerful wake, according to preliminary safety guidelines.

The standards released to the industry by the International Civil
Aviation Organization earlier this month are tentative and almost
certainly more cautious than the formal rules expected next year. But
if the final air-traffic procedures end up close to ICAO's initial
proposal, they could undermine one of Airbus' top selling points for
the largest passenger plane ever built: greater efficiency at congested
hub airports.

Interim air-traffic control guidance from ICAO says the mammoth plane,
scheduled to go into service next year, produces "significantly
stronger" air turbulence than the largest jetliners now in use. Because
flight tests and data analyses "have raised concerns" about potential
safety issues, according to the guidance, it calls for minimum
separations of 10 nautical miles for all aircraft following a landing
A380, versus the typical five-mile mandatory buffer behind today's
largest aircraft.

And this is a surprise? Did they think an airplane that size would have
the wake turbulence of a 737?

Matt