"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

Is this
really good news for Boeing...?

It's the only news possible.

In the 1970s Boeing bet the company on the 747. Now Airbus is betting
the company on the Next Bigger Thing. Boeing has absolutely no
response to this.

It is all a matter of what market predictions are made that guides Boeing's
plans, whale AI is about jobs.

If Boeing set out to build a Bigger Thing faster or better than
Airbus, it would only succeed in crippling both companies, because it
needs the 747 income to survive.

There is no indication boeing is willing to "give away" airplanes and that
is pretty much what AI has done with the first 100 A-380s.

If it crosses its fingers and hopes that Airbus comes a pratfall, it
risks becoming irrelevant and fading away. Who will buy the 747 if the
NBT (I never can remember those Airbus designations) is actually a
decent aircraft? It's bigger and a whole lot newer.

Boeing has been betting on market fragmentation for a long time. Most 747s
are flying less than full, but need the range for the market.

Overall, Airbus's fleet is newer than Boeing's, if somewhat duller.
Boeing has got to bet on something quirky that will replace planes it
can afford to lose (757, 767) while stealing orders from planes Airbus
*can't* afford to lose.

The 757 and 767 have gone to zero sales since 9-11 and unless the USAF buys
the tankers, the 767 line is doomed.

With me, Boeing has already won. I'd never fly a jumbo jet if there
was a twin-aisle widebody available, whether it's a 747 or a NBT..
I'll take the 787 (as I assume it will finally be named) over anything
else on the market, Airbus or Boeing.

No Dan, the airplane is really an E, which is 2 times 7 in hex.