It wasn’t quite the Glienicke Bridge – the steel span over the Havel River connecting East and West Berlin, but the ramp space at Farnborough briefly took on overtones of the ‘cold war’ as Airbus and Boeing executives and support engineers made ‘unofficial’ visits to the 787 and A380.
ZA003 - about to depart the show. (Guy Norris)
Boeing’s view of the A380 – impressed, but amazed that Airbus didn’t bother to at least wash the battered MSN004 test and demo airframe at the show. Airbus’s view of the 787 – impressed, particularly by the aerodynamics of the wing – but several comments about the ‘missing’ cabin windows by the fuselage joins and the ‘unimpressive’ cabin – even though they’d been clearly told this was simply a test cabin and not representative of the production version.
A380 - not quite the Gliencke Bridge (Guy Norris)