Airbus 380 Photo Fraud Unveiled

Click to enlarge

On June 12 I used this photograph as part of a posting on the Paris Airshow.

I knew it was a fraud when I used it because before the Airbus 380 ever took off the ground the Airbus folks had to show what it would look like flying over a large city. Unfortunately, one of the photographs they decided to PhotoShop their product was an aerial picture of San Francisco.

It's a nice picture. You can see the famous Ferry Building standing on the Embarcadero at the end of Market Street. Just above you can see the terraced facade of the San Francisco Hyatt Regency Hotel.

You can also see the dark hulk of the Bank of America building and the pointed top of the TranAmerica building just above the wing on the right.

The only problem is that San Francisco doesn't look like this anymore. At least not since 1989 when the city was shaken by the famous 7.1 magnitude "World Series" earthquake.

You see, the elevated freeway that you see along the waterfront (called the "Embarcadero Freeway") was badly damaged by the quake and was subsequently entirely demolished and removed.

This either proves the photograph is a fake or else it proves that the Airbus people have invented a secret time machine that they haven't unveiled yet!