1/. Name all eight aircraft in this picture
2/. Can claim to have seen more then 50% flying
3/. If you were alive when the photo was taken
4/. Attended Farnborough that year
And you really are getting old if you CANT find eight aircraft in the photo
Actually, the Varig aircraft aren't retired, they're technically between operators and in storage in the meantime. N702BA has been "rumored" to be on the scrapping line, but according to the rumors, it should have happened by now if it was. My guess is that we'll see it get parted out at least partially and then either returned to service later or put in long term storage. The aircraft beside it is supposed to be put back out again. 702BA was involved in an accident about 8 years ago and its maintenance wasn't all that great, so it's probably not very desirable for most potential leasees anyway.
Aircraft with a N7xxBA registration are in the Boeing Aircraft Holdings (Boeing's leasing company) fleet. They'll see operations with another airline in due time. Pinal (home of Evergreen International) is a favorite of Boeing's for conversion & maintenance of their lease fleet and other aircraft being turned over by Boeing to new operators, thus why you see a lot of the aircraft on the ramp.
BTW - the USAF puts a portion of the new aircraft it buys directly into storage, and has been known to even completely part out brand new airframes on occasion, usually due to manufacturing defects detected after the aircraft was produced. Both civilian and military operators have found that they can get 2-3 times the aircraft's initial acquisition cost in parts recoveries, so there are times when young airframes are reclaimed for spares because of that.
Brabazon, Apoolo, Jet Viscout, Viscount, Turboprop Hermes 5?, and a Meteor. Not sure what the other two are. I cant make out the top left one, but I reckon it could be the Yb1 or Sb3.
Ive only seen two of them flying.
Even my father wasnt alive when this picture was taken
Last edited by jonesey2k on 23 Mar 2007, 11:15, edited 3 times in total.
Error 482: Somebody shot the server with a 12 gauge.
Yes, that one has been (or at least is being) scrapped. That aircraft as well suffered an accident several years ago, and Boeing was unable to get anyone willing to take the aircraft on lease or on purchase because of that, so they parted out the aircraft and then broke the plane at several manufacturing joints so that things like the wings and tail surfaces could potentially be reused for damage repair of in-service aircraft.
Insurance companies and owners do all sorts of calculations to figure out what the "most cost effective" action for almost every aircraft in the world on a nearly yearly basis. Once the aircraft is no longer economical to operate or previous history has conspired to make the aircraft unsavory for potential future operations, then the aircraft is either stored and parted out over a long period or parted out quickly and scrapped. It's a multi-billion dollar industry, and it's amazing to see how many parts (and the total value of those parts) that one aircraft can put back into the parts pool, especially on aircraft that are no longer in production.
Cool interesting run down Chris, not enough is said about the life after death of a commercial airliner.
Chris Trott wrote:It's a multi-billion dollar industry, and it's amazing to see how many parts (and the total value of those parts) that one aircraft can put back into the parts pool, especially on aircraft that are no longer in production.
Heheh I bet NWA have relied on that industry to keep their DC9's flying!