I'm sure it'll at least be around in cargo mode forever.  I wonder what this means for the A380?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20040813/bs_usatoday/isthisold...

The 747 is doing well in the asia routes domestically and internationally as well as the australia routes. Just because the US carriers arnt using it as much doesnt mean its by any means loosing popularity. There are actually plans for a 747 Advanced using the 7E7's technology which if it comes into production will easily match and perhaps beat the A380. Remember America isnt the sort of market for these planes like the Eastern routes are, which is where the A380 is selling well, they like their big planes flying the short haul routes, instead of frequency they go for fewer but higher passenger number flights, which is what is needed to start reducing traffic in the sky

The 747's days are soon numbered.
Craig is talking about a re-make of the 747, similiar to what Mcdonnell-Douglas did for the MD-11, and what Boeing arranged for the 737NG wings andf its avionics (777 downgraded software)

But the truth is, Boeing has optimized every little inch of that aircraft to the max. As an airframe it can't compete head-to-head with the A380 when it comes to efficiency - no matter what Boeing does to it.

That's why I think  the 7E7 was a wise move by Boeing  

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And that will be impossible I think.
Airbus has the advantage that all of their aircrafts have the same philosophy. They were designed with that in mind from the get go.
Boeing's older designes did not share many commonalities so making all of their cockpits identical would cost HUGE amounts of money. 

As an airline passenger I want to fly direct to where I want to go, and I want to fly at a time that's convenient for me.  Given that I'm a typical customer and not everyone wants to go the same place at the same time, I think the future of the industry is smaller aircraft.  The 747 will stick around so long as there are a LOT of people that want to go the same place, but as airlines move away from hubs and towards direct flights its application will continue to decline.

I think the A380 is a bad move for Airbus.  They may succeed in beating the 747 for market share, but the market is evaporating.  The 7E7 is a wise move for Boeing: make an airplane that allows airlines to do what their customers want them to do:  fly direct, fly lots of flights, charge as little as possible.  The equation means we will see more application for smaller aircraft.

New one is coming... still a few meters left on the front and back if you take a look at the 'maximum size' chart

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I just can't wait for Antonov to step in and tell these upstarts how to build a really big passenger plane.  Airport turnaround will be fast since all passengers will be pre-loaded into a passenger container.  When it arrives it you slide the one passenger container out and slide the other one in .

lol, no