"Cub Driver" wrote in message ...
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.

Actually, Boeing's responce is "Airlines don't want big planes in big
numbers and anyone who tries this will lose money". (My paraphrase)

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.

No.

Boeing 747 revenue is only 10% of the comercial aircraft revenue, which
is only 50% of Boeing revenue. Almost no one is ordering anything
bigger than a 737 from Boeing. There are only 52 747's on order
total, as opposed to 195 777s and 798 737's.

Only 17 747's were ordered this year, and only 27 were delivered.

Basically, the 747 is fading gracefully. It's been around a long time
though.

For 2002, the only planes who's order books grew were the
a320
a380
737-800
Embraer 170