posted on May, 20 2018 @ 12:18 AM
a reply to:
Forensick
Yes and no. The GE9X could form the basis of a NEO for the 380 but it would need to be de-rated substantially to around 80,000lbs and (which would
partly happen anyway as a result of needing to shrink the fan for acceptable ground clearance on the #2/3 engines) would need to shed weight I
suspect. This however may destroy the efficiencies gained as the designs are optimized around particular performance metrics.
I believe that it is NOT the end of large 4 engined aircraft as paradoxically the greater the performance and fuel efficiency gains the more you
encourage air travel through lowering of ticket prices. This coupled with explosive growth in markets such as China inevitably leads to the kind of
congestion we are already being warned about and seeing in Europe for example. Point to point services using 787/A350 style models will go some way to
distributing this pressure but the reality is big airports are usually big for a reason, people want to go there and not some other place. This is
partly (but not entirely) why Boeing has stretched the 777X over the legacy models. The more bums you can put on one flight the less headaches you
have with gate slots and the greater the profit margin an airline can garner from a revenue flight.
However having said all this, do not expect any potential A380NEO or the 777X to realistically offer more leg room with an airframe stretch. It will
simply be used to pack in more passengers at ever lowering prices, into slot constrained desirable destination airports.