From: johnl@iecc.com

>I don't think there's much of a market for those huge planes at all. One
>of the new runways at Chicago O'Hare was built to land those things, paid
>for entirely by taxes and surcharges on airline passengers flying on
>planes that had no trouble landing on runways sized for the jet age
>in the 1960s.

You're right that the market for superjumbos, the A380 and B747-8, is
tiny.  Neither has much of an order backlog, and for the B747 it all
seems to be freighters, for which it's the only thing that can handle
the largest items, and flying pleasure palaces for Asian plutocrats.

One size down, though, the B777, B787, and A350 are selling great, and
both are much bigger than the 1960s 707 and 727.

What all those planes have in common is two engines and a two person
cockpit, which makes them much cheaper to fly than the four engine
superjumbos.  The current B777 has more seats than the early 747,
partly due to its greater length, partly due to higher seat density.

The B737 and A320 are the size of the 707, and both of those are also
selling well.

ObRail: for a truly bad idea, imagine a railcar designed by someone who's
previous effort has been on the composite body B787

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