Planes in the desert

Well. It seems Wysiwyg got it all wrong after all. His “glider with 5 APU’s” has finally become an export success.

LOL! 😀

Minden Air are testing a BAe146 this coming week as a potential future fire bomber – the US Forestry Service has deemed that all air tankers are turbine powered by 2008, and the 146 is seen as a suitable candidate – good low speed handling, manouevreable (sp?!), and fairly easy to maintain! 😮

Best thing – at least then passengers won’t have the misery of them anymore! :p

Andy

Its shocking to see the UAL 777’s barked at Goodyear! Who could believe it, only a few years old and allready in the desert, but that was due to over capacity! And all those AC 762’s, i thought they were desperate for 767’s?

Accountants rule. The finance games to aircraft leasing and aircraft purchasing are pretty creative. I am sure what ever replaced them is doing it better and cheaper. 747s have a certain nice look about them when they are painted nice, too bad that something like an A340 or 777 can do a lot of its passenger work and keep bean counter smiling.

Yes, it’s especially sad to see when you have personal attachment to a particuar aircraft

Well. It seems Wysiwyg got it all wrong after all. His “glider with 5 APU’s” has finally become an export success.

Sorry, don’t think there’s anything particularly sad about an airframe in store or for that matter rotting away or meeting the axe unless it has some significance to history or to type etc. A 747? Cut it up, it doesn’t bother me now. In 20 years time it might.

Regards,

kev35

C’mon now Kevin where’s them heart strings? The 146 and particularly the Aer Lingus fleet mean a lot to me. It’s not just about types and how historical they are, it’s about travel, adventure, dreams, aspirations and memories

I’ve possibly just described what fascinates me the most about aviation, but there ye go? 🙂

Well. It seems Wysiwyg got it all wrong after all. His “glider with 5 APU’s” has finally become an export success.

Sorry, don’t think there’s anything particularly sad about an airframe in store or for that matter rotting away or meeting the axe unless it has some significance to history or to type etc. A 747? Cut it up, it doesn’t bother me now. In 20 years time it might.

Regards,

kev35

Are those VS 742s just mothballed or are they going to be scrapped?

The two in that picture (plus a third elsewhere on the airfield) were parked post 9/11 when Virgin’s trans-Atlantic traffic dropped and they suspended some routes. Since then, the A346s Virgin had on order to replace the 742s have been delivered, so Virgin have no need for the 742s any more. Maybe some other airline will pick them up, maybe they won’t – 742s can be had really cheaply right now, but there’s very little demand for pax configured 742s and the market for frieght conversions is pretty much done now that 744s are starting to be candidates for conversion.

Andy

Are those VS 742s just mothballed or are they going to be scrapped?

I know that they run the airline, not me, and that they know what they’re doing best, but what is the point of mothballing airplanes when finances are no problem and you’re buying new planes? Why not sell or lease the planes if you don’t have further use for them, or keep them in service and thus avoid having to buy two extra a/c for your expansion plans?

Airplanes have a certain lifespan. This is measured in the ammount of cycles made and hours flown.

For example, take the odometer on a car (counts the total miles/kilometers travelled by the car since it was made). Once the numbers start getting realy high the car depreciates in value.

Its the same thing for a plane only you also then have to factor in that a plane must be totally stripped to its bare components after so many hours flown. This can be extremely expensive. Consequently older aircraft are getting retired. Much more so in todays cash strapped aviation industry.

Are those VS 742s just mothballed or are they going to be scrapped?

I know that they run the airline, not me, and that they know what they’re doing best, but what is the point of mothballing airplanes when finances are no problem and you’re buying new planes? Why not sell or lease the planes if you don’t have further use for them, or keep them in service and thus avoid having to buy two extra a/c for your expansion plans?

It is sad to see a beautiful aircraft sitting, doing nothing, all covered up and in bits, very upsetting.

lol @ papa lima, you know what i meant!!

How dare you call the A320 odd!

We only get B737s now @ MAN, with the odd A320 🙁

ahh very good 😀
Jst wanted to clear that up, they fly the B735/736 and A320 into BHX now

The other one is EI-CLH.

Do you happen to know the reg of that other 146 in the pic?
I have a pic of EI-CLH at BHX, wanna know if thats it there

Anyone else think them virgin 747s look strangely like models that you can get from the shop??

Er…. I think that’s the point of models isn’t it ? (lol) 😀 :diablo: 😉

Anyone else think them virgin 747s look strangely like models that you can get from the shop??

Other “locals” at Mojave – G-VPUF and G-VZZZ:

Andy

It’s always sad to see planes parked up in storage or for the scrapper in the desert. Even more so when it’s one you’ve flown on.

Here’s Aer Lingus’s Bae 146 EI-CLG at GLA two years ago as I was about to board it to DUB with my buddy Frankie, and in the second picture as she is now in the Mojave Desert…

(picture from A.net)

Always sad to see airliners laid up 🙁 Here’s a few from my ‘Vegas trip a few years back, from ‘Vegas itself, Goodyear and Mesa and sadly including quite a few Prestwick built J31/32’s 🙁