[HN Gopher] RP FLIP escapes wrecker's claws
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       RP FLIP escapes wrecker's claws
        
       Author : tomohawk
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2024-10-27 19:17 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (gcaptain.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (gcaptain.com)
        
       | sitkack wrote:
       | That is the great news I needed today.
       | 
       | It is sobering to know that humanity is continuing to make
       | wholesale mistakes that are only offset by a wonderful minority.
       | You could be the next person to save a different Flip.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RP_FLIP
        
         | kylehotchkiss wrote:
         | The next big flip to disappear is A380s :( quite a few have
         | been decommissioned already (so soon), production has ended,
         | and we're left only with a350s and 777x (lol) to follow in its
         | footsteps.
         | 
         | Meanwhile airports haven't gotten bigger and more people are
         | flying.
        
           | rootusrootus wrote:
           | Seems like Boeing made the right call when they canceled
           | their own plan for a new superjumbo back in the 90s. The A380
           | is cool, but not economical to fly. The future is more planes
           | like the 777X.
        
             | AdamJacobMuller wrote:
             | Deeply ironic considering how wrong Boeing has been in so
             | many other ways, but, its been fairly obvious that the hub-
             | and-spoke model the A380 was built for was dying in favor
             | of the point-to-point model of the 787/777x.
             | 
             | Airbus will adjust far better than Boeing could have, had
             | they been wrong.
        
             | nradov wrote:
             | Around the same time that Airbus was designing the A380,
             | Boeing did waste a lot of time and money designing the
             | Sonic Cruiser. The bet was that customers would pay for
             | faster point-to-point travel, bypassing large hubs. This
             | strategic error is one of the reasons why they still
             | haven't built a new single-aisle airliner.
             | 
             | https://simpleflying.com/boeing-sonic-cruiser/
        
           | fsckboy wrote:
           | > _Meanwhile airports haven't gotten bigger and more people
           | are flying._
           | 
           | many smaller market airports have spare capacity and point-
           | to-point flying from one to another reduces demand on the
           | large hubs, which is what Boeing (lol) told Airbus (i am very
           | smart) before they even started on the A380.
        
           | DaiPlusPlus wrote:
           | > The next big flip to disappear is A380
           | 
           | Just like with wildlife charities, those dang charismatic-
           | megaavians get all the public-attention - so the
           | nonthreatening and cuddly appearance of the A380 gets to be
           | on the sponsor-an-airframe marketing posters, but people need
           | to be aware of the importance of strong aerodiversity and the
           | need to protect and preserve smaller planes, like a Piper
           | Club or an Ekranoplane.
        
           | kortilla wrote:
           | >Meanwhile airports haven't gotten bigger and more people are
           | flying.
           | 
           | This was the flawed thinking that led to the production of
           | the a380 and its ultimate demise. It turns out that people
           | mostly don't like layovers and more efficient mid sized
           | planes flying between cities people actually want to go to is
           | much better.
           | 
           | I don't have to care about the capacity of ORD when I can
           | just fly to SFO directly from the east coast. The airports
           | with the worst capacity problems (cough LHR) generally had
           | that issue because they were major layover hubs too. The
           | economics will just eliminate them as a hub and life will
           | move on.
           | 
           | The 777ER came in and wrecked the other pillar supporting the
           | layover life by opening up direct long range routes from NA
           | to Asia that would have previously made sense on an A380 to
           | NRT with fanouts to other destinations in Asia.
           | 
           | The a380 is super cool, but it is not filling a need.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Related:
       | 
       |  _Scripps Institution of Oceanography's FLIP vessel
       | decommissioned after 60 years_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37072588 - Aug 2023 (51
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _A ship that flips 90 degrees for precise scientific
       | measurements_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15078094 -
       | Aug 2017 (75 comments)
       | 
       |  _" Flip", the vertical ship, marks 50 years at sea_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4193185 - July 2012 (34
       | comments)
       | 
       | I felt sure there was a more recent one but I think I got it
       | confused with this:
       | 
       |  _The Joides Resolution may have sailed its last expedition_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41785543 - Oct 2024 (3
       | comments)
        
       | CoastalCoder wrote:
       | The story vacillates between "it" and "her" when referring to the
       | ship.
       | 
       | Is there some nautical tradition that prescribes that?
        
         | dcminter wrote:
         | "Bells, it may be noted, like ships and kittens, have a way of
         | being female, whatever names they are given." -- Dorothy Sayers
        
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       (page generated 2024-10-27 23:00 UTC)