Quantas have apparently discovered either design or building flaws in the most excellent A380. Which can’t be a good thing.

My thought on Airbus and Boeing are simple: Boeings are prettier and, to my mind, better though out. I imagine that in Boeing, there is a person somewhere in the chain who has sole responsibility for signing off on stuff. Someone who has to say: that works, that doesn’t, that just looks stupid. Whereas I imagine that Airbus doesn’t have a single person who has that authority – the multinational structure probably means that there are committees at every stage.

If that is the case, do you think that’s what went wrong?