A380 Makes Landmark U.S. Flight Today, But ‘White Tails’ Could Still Ensue

An Emirates A380 is scheduled to touch down at JFK this afternoon, marking the behemoth A380’s first commercial journey to the U.S. But that doesn’t mean all is well in the airline manufacturing industry. And that leads us to our travel lexicon lesson of the day, courtesy of the New York Times. “The spreading downturn causes some analysts to wonder if aircraft makers will be left with ‘white tails’—industry slang for planes that are built without customers to accept them, leaving their tails unpainted.” It’s like the airplane equivalent of an unpainted Easter egg. That’s just wrong.

Related on World Hum:
* The Airbus A380: ‘The Mother Load’

Photo by frielp via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

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