mad inventor

12.02.08

Birth of a Titan

The A380 is the most massive jetliner ever built, and getting it done was an equally huge undertaking. Here, an exclusive look at the unveiling of Airbus's giant gamble

By Bill Sweetman Posted 03.31.2005 at 3:00 pm 0 Comments

There were acrobats from the Cirque du Soleil, a mechanical objet d'art that looked like a mad inventor's spaceship, and a voluble computer-generated wizard that bore a disturbing resemblance to a bathrobe-clad George Carlin-the ceremony in Toulouse, France, that marked the completion of Airbus's first A380 was nothing if not pomp-filled. But when four kids finally tugged on a huge tasseled cord and the curtain fell to reveal the largest jetliner ever built, the spectacle was just beginning.

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speedy The Fastest Swimsuit on Earth
"At the Beijing Olympic pool, perhaps the only star bigger than Michael Phelps was his swimsuit. The Speedo LZR (pronounced "laser"), like Phelps, didn't disappoint: 16 of the 32 gold-medal winners wore the full-body suit, and another 13 wore LZR pants."
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speedy A Finish that Repairs Itself
"It won't save you from a key-gouging vandal, but the finish on the 2008 Infiniti EX and FX-model SUVs can erase scrapes caused by, say, car washes or stray branches."
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speedy Boeing Advanced Tactical Laser
"Truck-mounted IED-destroying lasers have already been tested in Iraq, but firing lasers from an airplane is a more difficult proposition."
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speedy A Spit Test for Heart Attacks
"This year, San Antonio EMT crews began using a spit test that detects cardiac arrest faster, more accurately and more cheaply than other diagnostic tests."

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