Liar Liar, Pants on Fire: Carcaillet "Speaks".

In comparison to the folks over at the A400M facility who are quietly going about their jobs without a lot of fanfare and bizarre stuff, the commercial side of Festung Airbus once again has opened its mouth and changed feet right on schedule.

It was reported in The Australian today that Richard Carcaillet of the Festung accuses Boeing of telling "big lies" about the ability of the A380 to achieve its efficiency goals. Once again, it seems that the Festung is putting out a lot of heat but no light, as far as we can see.

It comes down to the same old "Well, the 747 is an old design and we've got a new one", "The A380 is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger when we stretch it", and the real meat of the meal, "The A380 is 50 per cent more productive through the combination of more capacity and more range".

Carcaillet further says that Boeing's estimates are erroneous and artificially inflated, and that this made the comparisons fall decidedly in Boeing's favor.

I could go on, but one thing is for damn sure: Airbus isn't giving out the numbers that would allow people like me to make a valid comparison.

Back in February of this year, we here at the Dougloid Papers did a more or less ad hoc weight analysis of the A380 based on figures that Airbus themselves published, and figures published by the FAA for passengers and baggage.

(see, Tuesday, February 28, 2006 Time to Talk: The A380 and Weight Projections )

What it revealed was that with the A380 you could have either passengers, cargo or fuel, but not all three in sufficient quantity at the same time to accomplish an all up mission. What you have, essentially is an aircraft that if fully fueled will not carry much in the way of passengers or cargo, and if the seats are filled it won't carry a lot of fuel or cargo. That was based on the figures that Airbus has published in the past. There's suspicion that their estimates of the weights of the interior fitments might be a little on the optimistic or hopeful side as well.

So here's the challenge, Mr. Carcaillet. Tell us what the Big Boy weighs, ready to go.

Give me the figures you guys read off the scale of the all up A380 with passenger interior fitted, and I'll be happy to redo the figures I came up with and proclaim it for all the world to see, and I'll even eat crow in public.

Until then, don't be calling people liars without more to back it up.

While you're at it, I'd like the center of gravity information to calculate some passenger and cargo loadings as well.