Airbus A380 Coming To Vancouver

It’s sort of funny, because Jason and I were talking about this big bitch tonight. Apparently it’s going to be making a brief appearance in Vancouver sometime in November. It truly is an engineering marvel, but I really don’t want to go on it.

Why not? Well, firstly, it’s 590 tons of reinforced plastic travelling at mach 0.85. Doesn’t scare you? How about the fact that during the initial stress test of the new plane, the wings snapped in half. Maybe it will be safe, but considering that nobody really understands the failure modes of composite materials, and that at least one airplane has broken apart in midair due to composite delamination, I think I’ll stay clear of relatively unproven composite planes.

Update – for those wondering when

On Nov. 29, during its flight back to Europe, the superjumbo jet will stop at Vancouver, B.C., north of rival Boeing’s manufacturing facility.

Oh, unfortunately I have dug a little bit digger, and found this on Vancouver Airport’s Website:

Unfortunately, the A380 visit to YVR is not open to the public. The aircraft will not be visible from any pre-security parts of the terminals and due to the parking position of the aircraft and time of day for arrival and departure, there will be no suitable outdoor viewing points. The public is advised that the best view of the A380 will be through local media coverage.

So apparently you won’t even be able to see it.