Megastructures 747 Demolition

The program was interesting to a certain degree. I lost interest 3/4 way thru due to the commentary, but then its for “joe Six Pack!”

Lot of waffle, about 15 mins, about the removal of an engine. Jeez, theres an engine change almost daily somewhere in the industry.

As for the price of the undercarriage thats about right…probably high time and run thru to the end of its cycle limits etc. It would cost you a cool US$250,000 ish, probably more to put it thru a shop and get it back into service.

It costs about US$150,000 (£70000) to strip one down. Then the cost of sending all the bits to the repair shops for fixing so its not a cheap hobby.

Saying that there is a strong market for the -400 stuff so its a fairly good investment, if you have the time and cash to play with.

Yep, watched it too…..great film, shame about the commentary! It would have been hard to find a scriptwriter who knew less about commercial aviation and how aircraft actually work. Can’t blame the narrator, he was just reading the drivel.

Exactly what I thought. I was thinking the script must have been written by a 10-year old! The over-emphasis on ‘danger’ made me want to turn off. Mind you, the ‘breakers’ kept on about it too.

Many years ago, myself and four other RAAF airmen had to ‘reduce’ half a dozen Lincolns and we were given one and a half days to do each one (not 12 weeks)! I removed the instruments and oxygen equipment; the engine and airframe fitters chopped the plane up with axes, standing on the bits they chopped off!

Yes, I do know a 747 is a little bigger, with more bits…

Bri :diablo:

N73717 Matt, ex-Alitalia

Did they cut the wings off with a massive plunging blade (From a Crane) as they do on the beautiful B-52’s at Edwards AFB?

Watch it again:
http://demand.five.tv/Episode.aspx?episodeBaseName=C5142960001

Did anyone catch the registration of the aircraft in the show?

I found it pretty interesting to watch.

Matt

Yep, watched it too…..great film, shame about the commentary! It would have been hard to find a scriptwriter who knew less about commercial aviation and how aircraft actually work. Can’t blame the narrator, he was just reading the drivel.

Nonetheless, it was fascinating to watch the process of teardown on that kind of scale. Hats off to the guys who had to do the dirty work, but as it is so hot during the day in Arizona, why not just work at night???

Yes, it was £25k for each landing gear, but that would be ‘as removed’ Once they have been through an overhaul shop you can triple or even quadruple that figure, depending on the part number of the assembly.

The usual economics are that you buy an airliner for what the engines are worth, sell them straight on, and the rest is your profit.

What I found interesting was the variation in prices £1000 for the coffee machine but (was it?) £24000 for the undercarriage legs

I found it to be very interesting to watch… Whilst sad to see any aircraft being scrapped, I was fascinated by the methods used and the sheer volume of recycled parts removed. It’s not all metal munching – and the fact that it takes a team of aircraft engineers to do this (not just a scrapman with JCB) made it compulsive viewing..

Good programme – and interesting subject.

I have to say that, given it was filmed in Arizona, I was waiting for the indians to arrive…

‘Scrapping Aircraft Giants’ is another one worth catching, it’s aired every once in a while on the Discovery networks.

Saw it a while back, it’s definitely worth watching !!

Regards,
Andy

I’ll +1 that 😉

Saw it a while back, it’s definitely worth watching !!

Regards,
Andy

I don’t think I could bring myself to watch that!

Paul