Randolph S. Baseler is very famous in the aviation industry for his blog, "Randy's Journal". As Vice President of Marketing at Boeing, Mr Baseler often addresses hot topics in the aviation industry in his online journal. "Big airplanes" is the title of the article he posted on June 23.

Randy writes, "Big airplanes are hard. Meaning, it's very challenging to build a large commercial airplane. And in the past week or so, we've all been reminded of this simple truth. In the competitive back and forth between Boeing and Airbus, it's all too easy to overlook the fact that what we do every day - building commercial airplanes - is an extremely complex and demanding endeavor."

Randy's comments refer to two recent major events in the world's aviation industry: the failure of the ninth test B787 Dreamliner fuselage and the announcement that the delivery of Airbus's new A380 will be postponed by 6-7 months due to problems in mass-production.

Boeing built eight test fuselage barrels successfully, but the ninth failed. Boeing suspects the failure was due to excessive porosity, or trapped gas or air in the fuselage material. An investigation has revealed that different tools and processes were used in this barrel than in the other eight. The Senior Manager of Airbus explained delivery of the A380 had been delayed because "obviously there are some shortcomings in production...we must recognize the bottlenecks in electrical systems and technical standards, manufacture and installation of follow-up utilization."

The A380 is the world's biggest-ever passenger plane in production and has been called the "flagship of the 21st century". The Boeing 787, or Dreamliner, is a mid-sized wide body passenger aircraft currently being developed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes and is scheduled to begin services in 2008. During the development and production process, both new airplanes have been mired in unexpected difficulties.

Since the Wright Brothers succeeded in powering the first flight in Kitty Hawk in North Carolina on December 17th, 1903, the process of realizing the dream of flight has never been easy. At the Seattle Aviation Museum in the United States and on the way to Heathrow Airport from London in England, people can see the now permanently grounded Concorde. Concorde's history reflects the fact that in spite of various hardships, human beings have never stopped creating bigger and better aircrafts. As an expert on airplanes, Randy explained that the difficulties of building an aircraft increase proportionally with size and the creation of an entirely new model is the biggest challenge. The manufacture of big passenger airplane involves systematic engineering with advanced technology. Even a small error could cause a major problem. In the process of developing new products, perfection is always relative. As it is a new model, it is reasonable to think there might be a few accidents.

In the face of these new difficulties, Boeing and Airbus have chosen to directly confront their problems and devote themselves to resolving them. Boeing has developed coping strategies to ensure the success of the production of the B787 aircraft. Airbus is determined to face the challenge with an "open and constructive approach". In the past 30 years, in order to break Boeing's monopoly in the aviation industry, Airbus has made an all-out attempt to initiate business.

Responding to these new challenges, Airbus said: "This means that innovation and technology have become the must. Technology is the key. We must use the right technology at the right time." Recently, Airbus successfully launched 16 emergency evacuation slides using only internal battery power in a test of the A380. This new world record paved the way for the full authentication of A380 by the end of this year.

Randy's closing remarks in his "Big airplanes" posting are very interesting: "They've [Airbus] hit a tough patch. But Airbus has a long history of achievements. They'll work through it and will continue to be a formidable competitor...The important part of the story is delivering high-quality airplanes. And sometimes getting there can be hard."