(FORTUNE Magazine) –  

Gargantuan. It's the only word that can do justice to Airbus's biggest bet yet, the A380, which will be unveiled Jan. 18 in France. Its wings stretch almost the length of a football field; nose to tail it's longer than two blue whales; and inside it can fit between 500 and 1,000 passengers. And when it takes to the air next year, Airbus's vision of the future--bigger planes for more traffic, using bigger hubs--will be put to the test. While 129 A380s are on order, some analysts doubt Airbus can ever recoup the $12 billion it cost to build, especially considering the company is reportedly selling them with discounts of 35% to 40%. Rival Boeing certainly doesn't think so: It's betting that the future instead lies in midsized long-distance aircraft such as its fuel-efficient 7E7 Dreamliner, set for 2008. The Chicago company thinks passengers would rather fly nonstop between destinations than rely on the hub-and-spoke model. So who's right? Well, after years of badmouthing Boeing's 7E7, Airbus announced in November it would build its own version of the plane for 2010, the A350, by modifying an existing jet. Some call it capitulation. Even so, Airbus may have already won its first marketing battle against Boeing: Sales of the 7E7 fell 37% short of targets, which had been to sell 200 planes by the end of 2004. -- Barney Gimbel