Daily News from New York, New York • 210

Gehry drops Times HQ bid nf je00 til AVw i ZJ By ERIC HERMAN SPECIAL TO EXPRESS One of the teams competing to design a new headquarters for The New York Times has dropped out of the running, the Daily News has learned. Architects Frank Gehry and Skidmore, Owings Merrill are no longer being considered for the high-profile assignment, according to sources close to the project. Gehry earned acclaim for designing the futuristic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. He and the Skidmore firm joined to design one of four proposals submitted to The New York Times Co. and its developer, Forest City Ratner Cos.

A Gehry spokesman declined to comment. The Times plans to build a 40-story headquarters on Eighth Ave. between i rm bus deai by Mir oemg untaze 40th and 41st Sts. 1 The company solicited designs from world-famous architects Cesar Pelli of New Haven, British architect Norman Foster, Italian architect Renzo Piano and the Gehry-Skid-more team. Many observers believed Gehry and Skidmore would have had the inside track.

Gehry enjoys By MICHAEL J. MARTINEZ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS When airplane manufacturer Airbus Industrie announced that Singapore Airlines would buy 10 of its new A3XX su-perjumbo jets, Wall Street analysts wondered whether it was the beginning of the end for the venerable Boeing 747. Their best guess: maybe, maybe not. While it's true that Boeing's 747 has new competition, the future of the A3XX is nowhere near certain. And in the meantime, Boeing's newest jet, the 777, has become increasingly popular for the long-haul routes for which both the 747 and the A3XX are designed.

In fact, the success of the 777 may foretell a change in the way airlines do ders for the 777, including 52 orders this year. Boeing recently announced the longer range versions of the 777-200 and -300 jets. The new -200 can carry 301 passengers up to 10,195 miles 1,300 miles more than the existing -200 model. The new -300 variant can carry 365 passengers up to 8,285 miles, a difference from the standard -300 model. The Airbus A340-500 and -600 were designed to carry more passengers for longer distances than earlier versions of the four-engine jet.

However, Airbus, which positioned its A340-500 and -600 jets as alternatives to both the 747 and 777, has received only eight orders for the 380-seat A340-600 this year, and none for the 340-seat A340-500. "The 777 is still more of a point-to-point aircraft just over longer distances," said Cai Von Rumohr, an aerospace analyst for SG Cowan Securities. "You have to wonder, since you can go to and from cities that aren't hubs, how much you need larger planes that just go from hub to hub." Increasingly, air passengers are looking for direct routes from city to city, instead of having to make connections at major hub airports like Denver or Chicago. Because of that, the 777 series, especially the extended-range and new, ultra-long-range models, have been popular with many airlines. Since introducing the twin-engine aircraft in 1995, Boeing has received 496 or- international celebrity, and the Skidmore firm, led by architect David Childs, has wide experience in Manhattan.

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