[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by gthang

I understood that Emissions also played a part in phasing out of aircraft models?



Wonder how much a role that played, and which otherwise successful aircraft it affected.



Cheers.

Im sure it has although with engine upgrades you can keep that in check. But at some point in time you cant just keep bolting newer engines on older planes for either technical and economical reasons.

The other reason not mentioned is noise. Noise abatement is a very thing. And again engines play a big role, but the overall package, i.e. Airframe and wings play a substantial role as well.

So both are likely to be factors in the replacement of commercial planes.

There is one other factor not mentioned before. Public sentiment. The DC10 suffered from a very poor public image. People just did not want to fly with it. So it never sold in big numbers and was ultimately phased out.

Manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus spend a lot of time these days in PR towards the general public in order to position their planes as safe, reliable, comfortable, cool etc. Boeing started this trend with the triple7. They made a 6 part documentary that was shown around the world on Tc channels such as discovery

[gthang]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

The other reason not mentioned is noise.

Isn't noise also an Emission?

Cheers

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by gthang

Isn't noise also an Emission?

I guess that depends on your definition. The FAA always mentions them separately, so noise and emission. From a technical and a legislative point of view, they are of course very different too.

See: https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org...ise_emissions/

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Just came across this article on BBC, as if on que for our discussion:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32384435

Jeroen

[Dieseltuned]

Speaking of Jumbos,

Has anybody noticed there are quite a few (I think 3 of these) jumbos parked at the Air India hangers at Mumbai International airport. You can see these parked there when your plane taxis for the take off.

Does any body have any idea are these in operations ? or just left there to be gobbled up by mother nature!

Regards
Dieseltuned

[Jeroen]

Jumbo is dead, long live the Super Jumbo:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/21/tr...ane/index.html

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Out goes the 380!

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/01/tr...irlines-sales/

[swiftdiesel]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Out goes the 380!

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/01/tr...irlines-sales/

Being a fan of the a380, I was disturbed to see the rather misleading title on your post. For the rest who are reading this: the lot of 380s belonging to Malaysian Airlines is being offered for sale or lease according to the report. Nothing to do with the market for 380s. Seems like an uphill task for Airbus, but the 380 will survive!

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by swiftdiesel

Being a fan of the a380, I was disturbed to see the rather misleading title on your post. For the rest who are reading this: the lot of 380s belonging to Malaysian Airlines is being offered for sale or lease according to the report. Nothing to do with the market for 380s. Seems like an uphill task for Airbus, but the 380 will survive!

Count me in for that. It is just bad times for MH that is causing them to sell the A380 and some of their 747 + 777. As Narayanan has quoted the example of how the 747 orders had come down, it will be a similar case with the A380. Its definitely not a small A320 or a boeing 737 to keep overflowing with hundreds of orders and backlogs. These jumbos, be it the 748 or the 380 can be used to connect trunk routes and congested airports where the traffic density is already high.

[Jeroen]

Airbus has not had any 380 orders for quite a while. They have been seriously contemplating shutting down 380 production facilities for some time. As with the 747, we are likely to see 380s fly for years to come. All these planes last a long time. Mind you there aren't anywhere the number of 380s compared to the 747 and that is not likely to change.
Jeroen

[Jeroen]

A somewhat more positive note on the 747.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...cid=spartandhp

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Revisiting this old thread. Because, unfortunately the end of the Jumbo era has definitely come. Or at least for the passenger versions. Many carriers are phasing out their passenger versions.

KLM aimed to phase out their 747-400 over the next 18-24 month. They had already started. It would have seen 50 year anniversary of KLM flying Jumbo Jets later this year.

Alas, not to be. Due to the Corona crisis, the phasing out plan was accelerated. Last Sunday, the last KLM 747-400 made its last landing on a commercial flight from Mexico City to Amsterdam.

As some of you will know, the 747-400 is my absolute favourite plane. I have flown on it, many, many, times as a passenger. Economy and business class up on the upper deck.

I have had the pleasure of riding up in the jump seat in the cockpit many times. The pre 9/11 days.

I have had the pleasure of piloting the full motion SIM of Cargolux and Lufthansa many times.

I have logged thousands of hours on PSX, a professional 747-400 instrument and procedural desktop simulator.

I did drive over to Amsterdam Airport to witness this very last landing. It should have been quite the occasion, but of course due to the Corona situation it was all even more sad. No big crowd, no water salute.

The Queen came in low flying right across Amsterdam Schiphol airport, flew downwind and turned back for her, last and literally, final approach.

The police had warned the public and plane spotters not to come. In the end there were only a couple of dozen of us, all spread out across multiple spotter places.

My last images of the last flight of the last KLM 747-400 to land at Amsterdam Schiphol.









I have not done much work on my PSX home simulator. I do visit their forum daily, just to keep up. A very good friend of mine, Ton, contacted me a few days earlier. We met about twenty years ago on the PSX forum. At the time we happened to be living quite near each other as we found out. So we often visited each other, talk and exchanged information about flying the queen. It was with Ton I did the trips to Luxembourg and Frankfurt to rent and fly the real simulators.

We have both upgraded our PSX to the latest and greatest version. Bought and installed the latest Database and installed the latest NG (Next Generation) FMC as well. So we are ready for some more simulated flying and generally fiddling with this amazing aircraft and its many and complicated systems.

The cargo version is likely to stay on much longer. E.g. Cargolux has a large 747-400 cargo fleet and has new 747-800 on order.

There are much worse things happening in the world as we speak. Still sad to see the Queen go.

Jeroen

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

The Queen came in low flying right across Amsterdam Schiphol airport, flew downwind and turned back for her, last and literally, final approach.

My last images of the last flight of the last KLM 747-400 to land at Amsterdam Schiphol.

There are much worse things happening in the world as we speak. Still sad to see the Queen go.

If any aircraft deserves the title of "Queen of the Skies" it is the 747. Given how 4-engined eagles are almost out of fashion and all aircraft almost look alike (to the lay passenger) it is a title she will hold for a long time. Thank you for sharing these photos and risking getting hauled up by the cops to get there:-)

[sagarpadaki]

Sad to see the Queen of the skies go into the annals of the aviation history.

Heard Qantas also ended their 747 operations.

Is it possible to convert the passenger 747 into the freighter format?

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Is it possible to convert the passenger 747 into the freighter format?

Yes but without the lifting nose for straight through cargo.