can any runway handle this thing?

This design has everything going for it except the airport infrastructure (ie gates) to support it. I know that we were acting interested at TWA before the "great bloodletting of '01" on the contingency that Boeing provide help with ground support modifications.

Good Old NWA
oldest average aged fleet operating and that's after getting rid of those old DC9 100s and most of their 727s (cargo still had em last I saw.
Were those POS Airbuses that got new anyhow (NWA would buy used Airbuses if they were available for the right price)?

I think the great thing about the 'span-loader' design is the fact that the load would almost certainly work on existing runways and airport infrastructure.

The wings will cover an area much larger than a 747, but they wont stick out across the runway and taxiway anymore than todays big birds.

I can think of two things I would do with this design besides vacationers to Orlando . First, it would make a really great refulling platform( 18 nossles - no waiting!), and second, it would give the C-5 a real run for its money.

And of all colors to do the mock up for, they chose NWA. Heck why not paint it in Southwest, they are as liekly to seel that beast to Southwest as they are to NWA.

Is the questionable content filter knocking out aviation questions now?

on a similar note:
I see FedEx has decided A380s are taking too long and costing a bit too much... so they won't be placing that order, thank you.
When I read it I though of you Frank!

Frank,
As someone who used to read AW&ST growing up in the 60's & 70's, this really isn't much of a surprise. It surfaces periodically then subsides with the next big order of the same 'ol same 'ol.
Like beating any habit, you have to go through several iterations of denial before things turn around.

> Is the questionable content filter knocking out aviation questions now?

The questionable content filter knocks out entries with words like "and" and "the".

The questionable content filter is a sufficiently annoyingly useless piece of junk that it has caused me to rarely bother commenting on anything that Frank writes about, which is one of the main reasons this is not my number two site to visit every day.

Frank doesn't seem to care that it's almost impossible to use the barely-existing comments feature as a result of this useless piece of junk, as I've noted the problems to him numerous times, detailing just how ridiculous many of its rejections are.