by removing the hard-drive in lieu of flash and removing the media drive, that's exactly what they've just given you, wouldn't you say? (but with real graphics card so you can actually do something with that beautiful display other than watch HD content stutter. and quad core i7.)
granted its not an air, but - are you sure you want one?
I imagine it needs the memory bandwidth of a real card with dedicated RAM to even just composite windows fast, so the air is not an option. This has the benefit of making a bigger difference between the two lines again too, although the 13 inch looks a weak offering now.
I think the 15 inch macbook as just announced is a far better option, with a single weak point (7 hrs) compared to an air-style form factor which would be weaker at everything - except weight and slightly thinner form factor.
basically, if all someone wants to do is type on it and not have to think about carrying it with them or not (e.g. a reporter for stories, student for essays, CEO for emails), a 15 inch air was not announced today. for everyone else, what was just announced is better than the 15 inch air.
for what it's worth, based on the review I just linked I would never touch it. (key sentence: "The real problem, though, isn't that the keys aren't cushy enough, but that they're sticky, and sometimes fail to register key presses. Ultimately, we still managed to type the brunt of this review on the Series 9, albeit with copious taps to the Backspace key.") yeah, that's not a laptop I'll be using.
granted its not an air, but - are you sure you want one?