[Jim727]

Some of this can almost be put in the category of religious belief; that said, I'll offer a few thoughts.

1) I have friends who would be dead today had they been flying an airbus instead of a Boeing.

2) Those of us who have flown commercially care more about our passengers than most passengers would ever understand, therefore we have very strong opinions about what makes a good passenger airplane.

3) Of all the professional pilots I know, NONE would prefer to be in an airbus in trouble than in a Boeing in trouble. I know a lot of pilots and test pilots.

4) Most airlines today are managed [sic] by marketing and financial people, not operations (read: pilots and engineers). Operations people don't get to buy the airplanes.

5) The basic assumption at Boeing is that things will go wrong and the aircraft should not make the problem worse or the pilot's job harder; there should always be a fall-back position. Airbus's basic assumption is that things normally go right.

6) Boeing is not the only aircraft manufacturer capable of making an excellent large passenger airliner; however, they are the only one remaining in the large passenger airliner business.

7) The Airbus 300 was a very good airplane. The 310 was almost as good. Anything beyond that is a "die-by-wire" bird and I don't fly on them.

8) There are places in the world where I think I would actually prefer to be on an Airbus. I try not to go to those places.

Boeing builds airplanes,
Lockheed builds systems,
Douglas builds character.

Jim