Straws in the Wind: Where's Shamu II.

In an article in the Khaleej Times today by Isaac John sure to make the ears of Airbus kibitzers everywhere perk up, Emirates, the single largest holder of orders for the Airbus A380, warned that further delays to the program would create "problems".

The subscript, of course is that Emirates is considering a large order for either the Boeing 787 or the Airbus A350, and the Emirates managing director suggested that he found the use of advanced composite structures attractive because of the potential for better fuel economy.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want my best customer to even think that anything I was doing could be remotely described as a "problem", especially if my competition had something that resembled a "solution".

If Boeing commits to developing a long range version of the 787, the chances are good that they may land a substantial order for the 787-10 from Emirates according to the article.

All of this makes interesting reading, and it suggests that there may be some very interesting developments in advance of the Asian Aerospace fandango in Changi next month.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/business/2006/January/business_January397.xml§ion=business&col=