Originally Posted by hfly
Yeah, 129 orders, a number that its been stuck at for over two years and three of the biggest four customers (including the biggest) are threatening to cancel orders (which they probably will not do as a significant portion of their a/c fleet will now come to them foc). Looks like the Concorde all over again. The real question is whether Boeing was smart enough to rope-a-dope them, or they just did it to themselves (remember when Boeing had huge plans for the 747X series and the flying wing? Bandied about long enough to get a response from Airbus and then all conveniently dropped.
Yes, but nobody in the airport industry took those plans seriously. One only had to look at the stupidly optimistic timetables Boeing was touting at the time to understand that Boeing were never really serious about introducing those, for all the glossy brochures which were produced.
I'd say currently the Boeing 748 programme is in a worse position than the A380 programme - at least the A380 has orders and has flown - but I do think a lot of airlines are fence sitting to see how the A380 does in service. As are we!
