>>1171631The 747 was an a e s t h e t i c masterpiece up to the -400 version where the extended upper deck ruined the elegance of the design and made it look like some awkward hackjob, and the -8 is so bad looking that it makes the A240-600 and the 777-300ER look as elegant and cohesive as the Concorde.
Now, the A380 won't be winning any beauty pagents any time soon (which is ironic, as IMHO the A330 and the A350 are dead ties with the 787 for title of "the most elegant widebody ever designed"), but what it lacks in outright beauty it more than makes up for with its purposeful brutishness, and in that sense it calls to mind the equally homely DC-10/MD-11, the Il-86/96, and large cargo aircraft like the C-5 or the An-124. For an airplane with an MTOW in excess of 550 tons, that's about as good as you're going to get.
So here's my 747 v A380 ranking:
>747-100>747-400F>747-200>747-8F>A380-800>747-400>747-300>747SP>747-8 
