Airbus megaplanes to be broken up and sold for part

It was designed to become the grande dame of aviation, an enormous modern plane that could seat 544 passengers - 853 if you squeezed people in - on two decks, replacing the venerable Boeing 747 with a new standard of luxury in flight. Just 11 years later - almost a nanosecond in the life of a commercial airplane - two Airbus 380s can't find a home and are about to be broken up and sold for parts. The A-380 may still be the future of aviation - Airbus makes that argument - or it may be the relic of an era from which aviation has spun forward with startling speed. But there is no question that the giant aircraft is hanging by a thread after it was first delivered in 2007 with fanfare that suggested it was the Next Great Thing. Moreover, what happens to the largest commercial aircraft on Earth may reflect an evolution in air travel caused, to put it most simply, because smaller planes can fly longer distances. If you live in a big city, which is pretty much any city that is home to two or more major professional sports franchises, it's a safe bet you're in a hub for at least one airline, and maybe several. Most of the rest of America is in a spoke city. The hub system is one reason a flight from Boston to Denver might go through Chicago on United Airlines, Dallas on American or Atlanta on Delta. The hub-and-spoke system isn't going to evaporate from domestic travel anytime soon, but there are several signs that over time it may erode. Story has more background. <br/>