Jumbo Trouble at Airbus

Back when I was a kid, Popular Mechanics magazine was a reliably lightweight digest of do-it-yourself projects. But while I wasn't looking, it morphed into one of the best publications around in covering science- and technology-related stories, including alternative fuels and global warming, the space race and even debunking 9/11 myths.

Popular Mechanics is now a must-read at Kiko's House, and it again has hit the ball out of the park with a terrific piece on the saga of the enormous Airbus A380, which was once hailed as a turning point in aviation history—a plane that would reinvent air travel and leave Airbus's rival, Boeing, in its wake.

Today, the program is two years behind schedule and $2 billion over budget, airlines are cancelling A380 orders, European taxpayers are being soaked, and Airbus is in crisis.

Will the A380 be the next Concorde -- an engineering breakthrough with little chance of breaking even?

Click here to learn the answer.