Rosalind couldn't see the direction Wu Qian was pointing in, and after David saw it, he said to Wu Qian: "Boss, that's the Beluga whale transport plane, which is a transport aircraft developed by Airbus based on the A300 aircraft framework." ”

"There aren't many of them, there seem to be only five of them, and they're mainly used by Airbus to transport between several factories in Europe, and occasionally leased out to transport large equipment, cars, art and the like. ”

David didn't say anything, Wu Qian originally thought that the strangely shaped plane was a concept aircraft, but he really didn't expect a transport plane, and he looked at the "Great White Whale" flying towards the clouds in the distance with great interest, and was amazed.

After a while, the car was parked in the parking lot, and the parking lot was also very large where the big plane was built, after all, there were more than 20,000 employees working here, and not everyone would commute to work in the company commuter bus.

Wu Qian stepped out of the car, looked at the neat row of staff commuter buses with uniform shapes and colors in the opposite parking space, and said with a smile: "The Mercedes-Benz logo on the front of the car is not as eye-catching as the "airbus" spraying, haha." ”

Daimler, which has a market value of less than $80 billion, is really a bit of a younger brother in front of Airbus, which has a market value of more than $300 billion.

Because of the bulletproof factor, the window of the phantom is smaller than that of the regular phantom, and it will be slightly depressing to sit in the car and look out, which will stand in the parking lot, Wu Qian looked around, and the field of vision was extremely wide.

Due to special reasons, there is not a single high-rise building on the grounds of Airbus headquarters that obstructs the view.

In the distance, he could see a number of low-rise office buildings and huge factories, as well as several planes parked next to the test runway, and a plane with the words A350 painted on its fuselage was turning around, as if preparing for a test flight.

"Mr. Wu, do you think where you plan to go first, or do you want to rest in the lounge and wait for lunch before starting the tour?" asked Di Maneva as he walked over to Wu Qian, his two assistants nowhere to be seen.

"It's still early, let's take a look at the A380 assembly shop first. ”

Wu Qian was deeply influenced by the concept of "big is beautiful", and was most interested in the giant in the sky.

Di Maneva, of course, had no objections, and he led Wu Qian's people towards the largest assembly workshop in the Airbus headquarters.

On the way, through Di Maneva's introduction, Wu Qian learned that the assembly plant that can accommodate large aircraft is not simple.

The A380 assembly hall is the largest of its kind in the world, with a length of 500 meters, a width of 250 meters and a height of 46 meters, and the amount of steel used to build the assembly hall and the test workshop reaches 30,000 tons, which can build three Eiffel Towers.

Wu Qian followed Di Maneva towards the factory, he noticed the big guy early on, and guessed that this should be the world's largest passenger aircraft assembly plant.

The feeling is completely different from that when you look at it from a distance, when you get closer.

Two words, shocking!

The height of the 46-meter frame has reached the height of the fifteenth floor of an ordinary building.

The interior of the factory is covered with cobweb-like railroad tracks, criss-crossing cranes and huge steel access doors.

There are more than a dozen divisions in the assembly plant, and the wings and fuselage docking, painting, circuit installation and testing and other processes are carried out separately.

"At its busiest times, up to eight A380 airliners can be assembled here at the same time. ”

Di Maneva proudly introduced.

However, the words of pride could not hide the melancholy in his heart, and that pomp and circumstance were gone.

Today, there is no new order hesitantly, and there is only one aircraft in the factory that is being assembled in a hurry.

Wu Qian carefully looked at the behemoth with "muscles and bones" exposed not far away, and the internal structure of the plane was unobstructed.

"Such a good plane, the ride comfort is unparalleled, but no one buys it, it's really ......"

Wu Qian muttered quietly.

Wu Qian used Chinese, but Di Maneva understood it, and he sighed secretly.

"If there were more people in the world like Mr. Wu who could discern pearls, the A380 would not lose to this era. ”

It's not that the A380 isn't good enough, this aircraft has many advantages, but these advantages, as the airline's operating model improves, people's travel habits change, and slowly become less important.

And the price to pay for these advantages is really too high.

How can there be a shortage of people in the world who love this big plane, as long as the passengers who have taken it once, except for the passengers in the next few positions next to the engine, who will complain a little bit about the noise of the Rolls-Royce engine, almost all of them are praised.

However, these are not the people who run the airlines.

There are really too few people who like this plane and can afford it.

Di Maneva stood on Wu's side, looking at the A380 being assembled, and imagined the scene of the first flight test flight of this aircraft in 2005, which was truly unprecedented.

On the day of the first flight of the A380, in order to cope with the large number of visitors from all over the world, the local department of Toulouse temporarily prepared a parking lot for 20,000 cars, and dispatched 400 gendarmes and police officers from nearby cities to maintain order in the city.

Some aerospace enthusiasts have even camped outside Airbus headquarters for more than a week just to capture the moment of takeoff.

Back in 2000, five years before the A380's first flight, Singapore Airlines announced the purchase of ten A380s, followed by Emirates, Lufthansa, British Airways, Qantas, Qatar, South Korea, Malaysia and ......

Orders are pouring in, and the limelight is unmatched for a while.

However, the good times did not last long, and in the end the success was "too big" and the failure was "too big", because of the high cost of refurbishment and the inability to guarantee the occupancy rate, this domineering aircraft slowly became unpopular.

Nowadays, the unlimited Airbus, if you only look at the A380 production line, is actually running at a loss, and it is not an exaggeration to really sell one at a loss.

Airbus Group has not given up on the A380, and in the face of the market, they are actively upgrading the original A380 model.

At the 2017 Paris Air Show, an "improved version" of the A380PLUS was launched, which on the one hand increased winglets to reduce fuel consumption, and on the other hand, the maximum number of seats could be added by changing the staircase design and seat layout.

At the same time, the A380 is designed in an extended and cargo version in addition to the basic model.

Failure to make a profit does not mean that the product is not good, and it is not favored by airlines because the A380 cannot help them make profits, and it does not mean that it is unsafe, uncomfortable, and luxurious.

It's just that for airlines, the A380 is not profitable and cost-effective, and they can use smaller aircraft and lower operating costs to create more profits.

It's a pity that the word value for money never appears in the eyes of the top rich!

What the top rich pursue is an extreme, an extreme that ordinary people can't enjoy.

In order to achieve the extreme, often the cost needs to rise exponentially.