Airbus delayed MH's deliveries due to production delays, which likely explains why MSN 16, 24 and 32 were never built / Not Taken Up.
While I personally believe the A380-800F won't happen, even if at some future date should Airbus choose to offer the plane again, the positions assigned to FX (MSN 37, 53) and EK (MSN 60) will remain Not Taken Up.
AustrianZRH From Austria, joined Aug 2007, 1263 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (4 months 3 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 13619 times:
Quoting rj777 (Reply 1): The program was cancelled after FedEx & UPS cancelled their orders.
Now I wrote a lengthy post about how the program was not cancelled according to the Airbus website, which still counted the A38F as active type two or three months ago. Now it's gone! Does anyone know if and when such a formal cancellation of the freighter program happened?
WARNING! The post above should be taken with a grain of salt! Furthermore, it may be slightly biased towards A.
Stitch From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 26682 posts, RR: 83 Reply 4, posted (4 months 3 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 13280 times:
Quoting AustrianZRH (Reply 3): Now it's gone! Does anyone know if and when such a formal cancellation of the freighter program happened?
As I have not seen a Press Release stating the model has been cancelled (i.e. - Airbus formally stating they will never build one), I expect it's no longer formally on offer and that is why Airbus has removed it from their website.
Tangomaniac From Germany, joined Feb 2012, 3 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (4 months 3 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 5945 times:
The A380F is still on offer on Airbus' website. You only have to look at the freighter-pages, not on the passenger-plane pages. That has changed with the last restructuring of Airbus' website.
MEA-707 From Netherlands, joined Nov 1999, 4117 posts, RR: 37 Reply 7, posted (4 months 3 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 5835 times:
Quoting EMBQA (Reply 5): No you will not. Manufactures do not go back and use old serial numbers. They will just go down as Not Built.
exactly. Also the 320, 300/310 and 330/340 production lists have spots open due to cancelled or delayed orders and such.
It would all be confusing to finally use these low numbers now. Technically it's possible as the 380 MSN's are not exactly built in that number following order. Say Malaysian tops up it's order, everyone would rather want them to have c/n's like 170, 185 and 202 for example, as finally filling up the low numbers 18, 24 and 32 would suggest it are already older and less able frames and people including mortgagers and brokers of aircraft would later wonder why these numbers are so low while already more then 100 are built etc.
nobody has ever died from hard work, but why take the risk?
SEPilot From United States of America, joined Dec 2006, 6256 posts, RR: 39 Reply 8, posted (4 months 3 weeks 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 5683 times:
Quoting MEA-707 (Reply 7): It would all be confusing to finally use these low numbers now.
If line numbers are correlated to serial numbers it would cause unbelievable confusion to use those numbers. You will find AD's and service bulletins applying to serial number ranges, and to insert older serial numbers into later production would throw all of that into a cocked hat. Things move on, and if a number does not get built, so be it. Numbers are cheap; there is an endless supply of them.
The problem with making things foolproof is that fools are so doggone ingenious...Dan Keebler
KC135TopBoom From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 11705 posts, RR: 52 Reply 11, posted (4 months 3 weeks 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 3847 times:
Quoting rj777 (Reply 1): The freighters will not see the light of day (for now). The program was cancelled after FedEx & UPS cancelled their orders.
Quoting AustrianZRH (Reply 3): Now I wrote a lengthy post about how the program was not cancelled according to the Airbus website, which still counted the A38F as active type two or three months ago. Now it's gone! Does anyone know if and when such a formal cancellation of the freighter program happened?
Quoting Stitch (Reply 4): As I have not seen a Press Release stating the model has been cancelled (i.e. - Airbus formally stating they will never build one), I expect it's no longer formally on offer and that is why Airbus has removed it from their website.
UPS waited until after Airbus "delayed" the A-380F program to cancel their order, which was originally a conversion from their A-300-600F order. So, UPS got their deposits back. They then ordered 8 new build B-747-400Fs from Boeing.
FedEx did cancel their A-380-800F order, as did EK, before the program was officially delayed to try to catch up on the pax model.
But, I believe that within the last few months Airbus quitly changed the staus of the A-380F model from "delayed" to "canceled".
N14AZ From Germany, joined Feb 2007, 2313 posts, RR: 25 Reply 12, posted (4 months 3 weeks 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 3068 times:
Someone from XFW explained me that they had already started to work on the detailled design for outfitting , e.g. for MSN 018. So there are already specific design features for a wave 1-MH-380 "in the system". If they now would use MSN 018 again all these specific design features would popp up again, which is of course not helpful and that's why they Don't use these old numbers.
jfk777 From United States of America, joined Aug 2006, 7342 posts, RR: 7 Reply 13, posted (4 months 3 weeks 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 2414 times:
What about the Virgin Atlantic birds, they ordered 6 A380 way back in 2000. They should have been flying by now. Seems unlikely VA will ever fly them, seems that A350 are more likely at VA.
FI642 From Monaco, joined Mar 2005, 1055 posts, RR: 2 Reply 15, posted (4 months 2 weeks 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 1882 times:
Once an MSN is skipped, it normally remains that way. I cannot imagine Airbus going back to skipped numbers and using them. Several reasons for this, One the number was assigned to a specific customer, and two, it makes the frame look older. Remember NW wanting the DC-10-20 changed to the DC-10-40 because it made it look like the latest greatest thing? Same here.
737MAX, Cool Planes for the Worlds Coolest Airline.
WingedMigrator From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 2024 posts, RR: 57 Reply 16, posted (4 months 2 weeks 6 days 16 hours ago) and read 1712 times:
Quoting KC135TopBoom (Reply 11): But, I believe that within the last few months Airbus quitly changed the staus of the A-380F model from "delayed" to "canceled".
breiz From France, joined Mar 2005, 1808 posts, RR: 2 Reply 17, posted (4 months 2 weeks 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 1436 times:
Quoting Stitch (Reply 2): Airbus delayed MH's deliveries due to production delays, which likely explains why MSN 16, 24 and 32 were never built / Not Taken Up.
MSN 16 was allocated to Emirates from scratch and delivered in May 2008. You are referring to MSN 18.
Quoting N14AZ (Reply 12): If they now would use MSN 018 again all these specific design features would popp up again, which is of course not helpful and that's why they Don't use these old numbers.
The parts planned for MSN 18 are said to have been re-used for MSN 45, delivered to Emirates in September 2009.
Unflug From Germany, joined Jan 2012, 187 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (4 months 2 weeks 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 980 times:
Quoting N14AZ (Reply 12): Someone from XFW explained me that they had already started to work on the detailled design for outfitting , e.g. for MSN 018. So there are already specific design features for a wave 1-MH-380 "in the system". If they now would use MSN 018 again all these specific design features would popp up again, which is of course not helpful and that's why they Don't use these old numbers.
That makes sense.
They'll only use the missed low numbers after they have run out of larger numbers, which won't happen that soon
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