Mike wrote:

On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 22:27:45 -0800, Bruce L. Bergman
wrote:

On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 11:00:39 -0800, Jim Stewart wrote:
Gunner wrote:
On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:20:06 -0800, Jim Stewart wrote:

A brand-new A340 doing full-throttle tests
slipped it's brakes and/or jumped it's chocks,
climbed a blast shield, dropped and broke the
cockpit off.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1293784/M/

http://www.avweb.com/newspics/airbus...t_02_large.jpg

A couple people hurt, probably at least a
couple people looking for new jobs.

Some duct tape, a little Bondo...pop rivets....no problem

Ummm, but that's how Airbus put it together in the first place, and
you can see how well that assembly work held...

Whereas if it were Boeing the duct tap bondo and pop rivets would be
rattling around in some hidden cavity in the airframe - that's what
you get when you let employees round critical areas of the airframe in
jeans and a t-shirt. It simply wouldn't happen at Airbus or for that

That's becuase they're too busy moving partly assembled planes to various countries
so everybody can pretend it's team work.

matter anywhere in Europe, Japan or Australia - even if the facility
was a Boeing sub-contractor.

The US is still the only country capable of making a large passenger plane. The
europeans can't do it because 1) working isn't acceptable there and 2) it's more
important to divide up a simple task into too many small ones just so everybody can
feel important.

Watching the assembly of a Boeing plane on vs. anything from airbus is startling.

pick any video from any website for comparison.

Boeing has an "assembly line. Planes get assembled and roll out the door.

Airbus, on the other hand prefers to block roads to move pieces around at night
between other plants that at too small. The rest of the time is spend backing the
planes up in a warehouse because they're oriented the wrong direction and/or don't
fit anyways. The rest of the time involves cranes with lifting tasks for no apparent
reason. It's the pinnacle of inefficiency.