Not again! World's biggest airliner loses wingtip after striking building at Paris Air Show - two months after doing the same thing in New York



Incident follows collision at JFK airport in which A380 superjumbo was grounded after hitting private jet

An Airbus 380 lost its wing-tip in a taxiing collision with a building, just two months after another superjumbo was grounded for striking a private jet in New York.

The A380 super-jumbo was grounded after the smash at slow-speed at the Le Bourget airport, where the Paris Air Show is taking place.

The collision mirrored an incident at JFK airport earlier this year when a private jet was spun round after it was hit by the wing of an A380.



A big problem: The damaged right-hand wingtip of Airbus A380 which collided with a taxi-way building in the latest embarrassing incident to hit the superjumbo

Here's a tip for you: The incident happened at the Paris Air Show - the main trade event for the European aviation industry

Repair: An engineer gets to work on the damaged A380 wing

The aircraft had been scheduled for demonstration flights during the show but these have now been cancelled, show spokesman Alexander Reinhardt said Monday.

The incident was another embarrassment for the European planemaker at the launch of the aviation industry's premier showcase.

The Airbus A400M military transport plane also had to cancel a demonstration flight because of what the manufacturer described as a minor gearbox problem, although the aircraft will still make a fly-over during President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to the air show today, Reinhardt said.



On Saturday, Airbus announced that two of the three versions of its new widebody jet, the A350, would be delayed about two years.

Broken: A team of Airbus engineers realise that it'll take a bit more than Sellotape to mend the wing

On a wing and a prayer: Airbus Industry technicians work on the Airbus A380's damaged wing tip

Grounded: The gigantic plane, with a wing-span of 80 metres, sits on the tarmac next to the building it struck

Crash: The Air France moments before impacting the much smaller Comair CRJ business type jet

The stretched A350-1000 is being pushed back to 2017 to give engine supplier Rolls Royce time to develop a more powerful motor that will extend the jet's range, Airbus said.



The standard version of the plane, the A350-900, is still expected to arrive in the second half of 2013, Airbus said.



NEW JUMBO OF THE SKIES

Cost: $375.3 million

Passengers: 525 people in three-class configuration or up to 853 people in all-economy class

Space: 5,146 square feet of floor space; 49% more than the current next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400 with 3,453 square feet

The Airbus A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines



The grounded flights and delays cast a shadow over Airbus as it takes on its traditional rival Boeing Co. at the air show, where both are expected to announce a string of orders as they vie for the position of biggest planemaker in the world.

Qatar Airways announced an order for six Boeing 777 planes in a $1.7 billion deal at the start of the show Monday.



Beyond the rivalry, the search for more environmentally friendly aircraft is shaping up as a major theme of this year's Paris Air Show, the world's largest and oldest aviation showcase.



The aviation industry has suffered this year from skyrocketing fuel costs and bleak forecasts for the international air transport market.

...moments later the smaller jet is spun 90 degrees...

The International Air Transport Association last month warned that natural disasters in Japan, unrest in the Middle East and rising fuel prices would cause airline industry profits to collapse only a year after they'd begun to recover from the global economic crisis.



More than 2,100 exhibitors from 45 countries have signed up to take part in the weeklong event showcasing both commercial and defense aircraft.



Airbus expects to bag bountiful orders for a new, more fuel-efficient version of its workhorse A320 shorthaul jet, while Boeing is spotlighting its new mid-range 787 Dreamliner and 747-8 intercontinental passenger jets.

Watch the video of the JFK collision





