Don Brent

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I earn my living programing avionics for commercial aircraft. After Sept 11, and the subsequent layoffs and production cuts in the airline industry, my company and specifically our department were facing massive job cuts and many of us were facing unemployment just prior to the holidays.

Now it looks like we are being selected to provide the FMS (flight management system) for the A380 program. This will be a huge effort from a software standpoint and will keep us going for at least 3-4 years.

Basically Airbus saved my job!

I have been somewhat critical of the A380 program in the past and I now find myself in the somewhat awkward position of oweing my livleyhood to it. This Aircraft is now putting food on my table and presents under our tree.

THANK YOU Airbus. I and my family are in your debt!

Don

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The best mission statement I've ever heard was:

"To be the kind of person that my dog thinks I am..."

Blisterbum

Its nice nice to hear that Airbus is still pushing through with the A380 project despite the troubles in the Aviation Business World.

Congratulations Don Brent for that break you got !!!

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Erick Tubil

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DeltaFlot

Congrats on the new job. even though I feel wierd at saying that

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Febuary 15, 1898
December 7, 1941
June 8, 1967
September 11, 2001
Never Forget, Never Forgive
If you kick the Tiger in the arse, you better be able to deal with the Tiger's teeth.

ltu1542hvy

I don't know how naive it is for me to think this, but I hope and firmly believe that the insanity this world is facing at present is only temporary and that it will return back to normal eventually, perhaps in a few years, and along with that the demand for air travel will return to what it was too, at which point Airbus will be ready with the A380.

Congrats on getting that job, Don!

- Bill

AirDar

And hopefully it will have one he!!uva thick cockpit door!!!

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Dar~

Yours is not to question why,
Yours is but to BUY or DIE!

justplaneobsessed

Hey Don, make us proud...

Edwin

flyingfox

Hey Don,

Great news !
Make us want to fly in ta big monster !

Cheers!
Dimitri

Don Brent

After re-reading my post, I may have give the impression that "my company" refered to a company I own.

Actually the company I work FOR looks to be getting the contract.

But thanks for the words of encouragement.

Don

__________________
The best mission statement I've ever heard was:

"To be the kind of person that my dog thinks I am..."

justin

Good to hear you're safe for a few years! I guess it's another example of the way modern airliners are truly international, assembled from components supplied from companies all over the world.
Justin

Antonio_BR

Congratulations!!!!

The world market situation is very complicated and, unfortunately, many people are and will be losing their jobs...I hope that this normalizes soon!

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Jao

Congrats Don. Sure glad Airbus is pushing thru with this project even after the incident.

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Ming Lee

Don:

Great news. This proves the world is one integrated family and getting smaller. Here, at Lockheed Martin, we have quite a few projects that are associated with Boeing, believe it or not, and other companies. In one way, we are competitor and another way we are partner. It is rare now that one single company has exclusive contract in such large scale.

Regards,

Ming

Seb

Congratulations Don - please make those avionics well!!

b737gearboy

Once again Boeing is about to get their *** kicked. They have dropped the ball in regards to the 737 program and now the A380 will happen and dwarf the beloved 747. I hate to write these words because I am an American but Airbus is much more innovative. The 737NG is nothing more than a souped 60's model 737-200. Boeing caved to Herb and continue to produce an antiquated, outdated, and uncomfortable jet. Like I have said before it pains me to write the above however having flown the 320 and the 737 the Airbus is light years ahead. Boeing continues to respond to the competition by stretching it's dinosaurs and relying on its name while being left behind at the same time. Sad, so very sad.

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flick70

I hope that the airline industry rebounds, but I sincerely hope that things never go back to normal.

People are friendlier to each other in the US, we are more aware of our surroundings, and people are more focused on the important things in life. "Normal" is what got us in this situation, we need to be better than normal.

Pete Hamel

Congradulations on the new job, Don. I guess it really is evidence of the world economy. The crunch is being felt everywhere. Partly because of the drop in current tourism and anticipated winter tourism here in Florida, our education budget has suffered.

It's amazing how one event can have so many rezidual effects. The ironic part of course is that Osamma's plan to send us up in a frenzy and divide us not only failed, it backfired in his ugly face. Today, we have more respect for eachother, have come closer as a nation than I have ever known us to be, and have a nearly united world behind us in our efforts over in Afghanistan to irradicate Ossama's arse from physical existence.

Pete

Darryl

Yes Gearboy, you knew that I would come out to refute your Scarebus marketing hype once again. Do you get paid to think this way, or are you just in dire need of rehab?

First, the A380 will be a reality, however, it will be the Concord for the New Age - Built to save face, will never make a dime and the wrong plane at the wrong time. When the world said they needed to go fast, Boeing said that travel needed to be affordable. Hence, Europe went fast with the Concord (a bomb) and Boeing went big with the 747 (a complete success and the envy of the world). Now, let us fast-forward a few decades and Europe says, "Hey, let's go big," while Boeing has correctly forecasted the market (again) with speed because the capacity is there and it is now affordable. Sorry G-Boy, but your beloved Euro-Friends are about thirty-five years behind the game (again). I predict that ten of these things will be built and all will be sold to FedEx after the state airlines of the Scarebus membership find out that they have made a big (pun surely intended) mistake. With increased airport security, the inevitable boarding delays that will result and the threat of an aerial terrorist vehicle this big, it is just not going to gain the public trust. Sorry pal, too many souls in one basket, and far too attractive a target for the Bad Guys.

Second, the 737 old and only catered to Herb? Again, rehab will cure this false view of reality and set you free, my friend. Sure the original Fat Albert was bred out of the sixties, but the car in your garage was bred out of the days before Henry Ford, so does that make it antiquated or just a modern refinement? Plus, and put the crack pipe down for this one - Do you firmly believe that the 737's rolling out of Renton today are simple stretched copies of the 100 and 200 series? Me thinks that you need to take a look inside an NG and see for yourself. In the airplane business I have met very few people (and pilots are the most guilty of this philosophy) that blindly trust “cutting edge” technology. They trust the proven. The Boeings today are technological refinements, not rushed to the market, techno-wizardry marketing hype airplanes. They are competent, safe and reliable aircraft that turn a profit for a very long time returning the investment dollar many times over, and that is why Herb is so successful (I don’t remember what airline you fly for, but taking a swipe at Herb tells me it is not a very successful one). The 737 is the most successful airliner of all time, it is proven, trusted and in demand, out selling ALL AIRBUS PLANES COMBINED. Boeing got it wrong? NOT! As I have already advised – Put the Crack pipe down and the truth will set you free.

Lets now analyze your beloved Euro-Sled, shall we. If memory serves, the A320 came about in the early eighties (not quite a Spring Chicken anymore), and from that the rest of the Scarebus family was born by stretching, stretching some more, widening it a bit and adding some engines. Basically, the whole line grew out of that one plane (save the A300) and they all look the same. If the A380 is indeed built, it will be the first truly new airplane out of the factory in decades. An A340 is nothing but a big A320 and you can tell just by looking at them. A 737 looks nothing like a 747, which looks nothing like a 757, which cannot be mistaken for a 777. Boeing builds planes to meet the need, while your side took the cookie-cutter approach to airplane building. Innovative? I don’t think so.

I bet it did indeed pain you to write such words, but writing pure rubbish about a US company so rich in history, tradition and technology, while actually believing this rubbish, does have a way of eating away at ones innards. Keep in mind that Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed were designing, engineering and building aircraft long before your beloved consortium even dreamed of working together, because that was the only way that they could compete with the best aircraft manufacturers in the world, period! Look at the facts, my boy. The receiver of the *** kicking is not going to be whom you think it is. And no it won’t be sad for me – I’ll be laughing my *** off.

Good luck Don, and though it is not a Boeing, build the most butt-kicking and safe systems that the world will ever see and may it indeed be a very Merry Christmas for you and your family.

Shawn Moynihan

Boy Darryl !

You took the words right out of my mouth.

We all have been here before.
This Sh*t comes up and then I have to put the idiots in there place.

Thanks for the words.

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justin

Errr... I don't want to cause trouble, but anybody who thinks the A340 and A330 are just a stretched A320 either has never seen one or needs a crash course in engineering! The A330 and 340 share a fuselage with completely different wings but neither has any relationship to the A320 family other than flightdeck design. They actually evolved from proposals for growth variants of the A300 if anything, although down the line evolved into a whole new design.
For what it's worth, I think the market needs both the A380 and sonic cruiser, the two are not mutually exclusive, ask Singapore Airlines. What irritates me is that the proponents of each ignore the holes in the arguments in favour of their own favourite then throw bricks at the other one. Both the A380 and sonic cruiser have big question marks hanging over them, but I believe both have a role to fill and both will be successful.
About terrorism, I think that's an empty point as any airliner can be used to devastate a building, the aircraft that hit the WTC were much smaller than a 747.

Justin

b737gearboy

idiot........real nice!!!!!!

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b737gearboy

Darryl,
Good to see you on the boards again, thought you had disappeared. Where do I begin????
I wish Boeing was half as smart as you and your grouppies think they are. You make some valid points about the future of the A380, I echo your sentiments about the long term viability of the program. My criticism of Boeing stems from its response to the A3XXX program, i.e. the stretched 747 and the big joke called the Sonic Cruiser. These are merely gimmicks intended to get attention much as my 1 year old does by screaming in the grocery store.
Before I get attacked from the Boeing mafia let me digress a bit. Boeing has built some awesome airplanes in its day and continues to do so and will in the future. When I became a pilot I dreamed of flying ANY Boeing ever made from the B-17 to the 747-400. When I had the opportunity fly the 737-300/400 I was thrilled and couldn't wait. Having flown the airplane about 2000 hours I can say in MY OPINION it is the best almost airplane out there. It almost carries full fuel, it almost carries full pax loads, it almost flies coast to coast, etc etc. I am sure Boeing has gotten their act together with the NG's. As I have stated before in many other posts I want to like Boeing more than Airbus, I cheer for Boeing when they beat Airbus for customer orders. After all I am an American and I cheer for American industry but that doesn't mean I'll ever buy another Chrysler again.....well that's another story.
I don't think it comes down to Airbus being smarter than Boeing as we Americans have the know-how to do just about anything once we put our mind to it. I think it comes down to Airbus's advantage of starting with a clean sheet of paper from day one learning from Boeing's mistakes. The Airbus 320 series that I now fly is a much more versatile machine than its Boeing competitor. The commonality of the A319,320,321 is a huge advantage over Boeing. The range and overall comfort of the Airbus is FAR superior. Every mechanic (many whom had great reservations about Airbus) I speak with loves the ease of working on the A320, being able to pinpoint the problem rather than using a shotgun approach. The transition to the A330 requires reduced training due to the system commonality of the two. By the way as was already stated the A330 is a widebody requiring a new design not a stretch job by an engineering team.
In summary, Boeing has become a hodge podge mix of old designs(except for the 777) that they continue to stretch and shrink. Also I think Boeing competes against itself with many models such as the 717 and the 737-600. I wish they would start with a clean sheet of paper and build a versatile airplane that kicks Airbus' ***!!!!!! I am afraid Boeing is losing the battle for know but hopefully will win the war in the long run.

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