Re: aviation (aircraft) freaks, gather here!
Recently, I got the chance to travel on both the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787. I will describe some things about both planes. The Airbus A380 has to be my favourite aircraft now.
I got two flights on each, both within hours of each other and both on extremely new aircraft (I think the first A380 was delivered to the airline less than a month before my flight). One thing I noticed as soon as I stepped onto the A380 was how quiet it was. As we were taxiing on the runway, I could not stop myself from thinking, "Shouldn't it be louder? Are all four engines really running?" I could barely feel it moving along the runway ... and then we were in the air. Still quiet. In fact, during the whole flight, it barely got louder. I was even able to sleep comfortably for several hours. But when was the quietest point? During landing. The engines were almost inaudible on that first flight. On my second flight, the aircraft was slightly louder, but I still slept comfortably f or longer than I have ever slept before on a plane. (Both flights were night flights.) Its quietest point was just after landing as it was sliding to a stop before being towed to the gate.
And now to the 787. It was definitely louder than the A380, something that I was not expecting as I had read online that it would be even quieter inside the cabin. The rumble of the engine was very distinct, though it was mercifully not nearly as loud as an A320 or 737. On my second flight, I was seated next to a window. The windows on the 787 are significantly larger than you will find on most other aircraft (some new Airbus and Boeing planes have larger-than-we-are-accustomed-to windows). There are several options for tinting the window that you can adjust by using an upp-and-down button just below each window. When the window is dimmed, blue gel solidifies over the window, but even on the darkest tinting option, the window is still not opaque (you can still see the sun). Unlike on other a ircraft where the windows are recessed into the walls of the cabin, on the 787, the windows are part of the wall, meaning that it does not curve so far inwards as on other aircraft. Airlines have reported two problems to Boeing about it: the gel takes too long to appear and disappear after pressing the button to tint or de-tint the windows; and heat comes through the window, making it very hot to touch, to the extent that at least one airline distributes "window-covers" to passengers upon request that stop the heat from coming through the window into the cabin.
Both are great aircraft. The next aircraft models I would like to try are the A350, and maybe also the 737 Max.
Simba, I think you said in post 10 that you spoke to a Lufthansa pilot who is blind. Are you sure? If he is a blind Lufthansa pilot, I would be very intrigued to know how he obtained his licence because I know that they are very cautious about even allowing colorblind pilots to get a licence. T he pilot of that Germanwings flight that crashed a few years ago crashed the plane because he feared that he would lose his licence because of him going blind. I think it would also be interesting to know what aircraft he flies and what adaptations he uses.
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