Friday, November 17, 2006
Trip Seven Meets Its Fate.
For the first time, a Boeing 777 has been retired to the scrap heap. It's an early 777-236 model, the 19th off the assembly line. It does not have the extended range package. It was equipped with GE 90-90B engines, which are not common on this model.
This is sort of a surprise in some ways, as 11 years is nothing for airliners. It's odd to think that this aircraft will be scrapped, when older aircraft such as 727s, Mad Dog-80s and 737 dash 2s are still happily plying routes and making money, but there are reasons for this move. Even odder is that not a single 777 hull has been lost to an accident, so this trip 7 is truly the first to be removed from revenue service.
The aircraft was originally a British Airways aircraft plying middle east routes, before being phased out as newer, longer ranged aircraft joined the fleet. It was resold to Boeing in 2002, and went through two false starts in attempts to sell it before a holding company bought it and leased it to Varig, the Brazilian national airline in January 2004. It was operated by Varig until April 2006, and returned to Boeing in August 2006.
Under Varig's operation, slowly fell into a state of disrepair, as maintenance was put off. There are reports from customers of dirty cabins, thread bare seats, and personal TV sets on the seat backs breaking down. There's one picture of the interior 9 months before it was parked and you can see that not a single TV screen is working. The passenger was told they were shut off due to constant breakdowns. He also reported that electrical power to an entire section of the cabin was lost on one trip, but the flight continued on anyway. The plane was eventually parked as noted above.
Just like cars, there comes a time in a machine's life that it becomes more valuable for the sum of the parts rather than the whole. And that's what's happened in this case. Some of the factors are the early configuration of the airframe (Non extended range) the odd engine combination, and most important, the dismal overall shape of the craft. It's due for a D-check. That's the aviation equivalent of a frame-off restoration. It includes completely stripping the interior down to the framework and inspection of the interior structure for corrosion and damage. The engines are removed and either zero-timed or replaced with new ones. All of the hydraulic systems are drained, cleaned, flushed, and refilled. All of the electrical systems are checked and repaired as needed. There's more, but you get the idea. And it isn't cheap to do. That's why this plane is being broken up. The owners can make more money off of the parts than they can by putting it back into service.
Kinda sad really. There's a certain retired airline Captain I know who flew these, along with what he used to call "Flying Cows." If he knows about this, I'm convinced he's probably shedding a tear.
Sorry Dan. If it had been up to me, I'd a kept her flying.
"The nicer an airplane looks, the better it flies."
This is sort of a surprise in some ways, as 11 years is nothing for airliners. It's odd to think that this aircraft will be scrapped, when older aircraft such as 727s, Mad Dog-80s and 737 dash 2s are still happily plying routes and making money, but there are reasons for this move. Even odder is that not a single 777 hull has been lost to an accident, so this trip 7 is truly the first to be removed from revenue service.
The aircraft was originally a British Airways aircraft plying middle east routes, before being phased out as newer, longer ranged aircraft joined the fleet. It was resold to Boeing in 2002, and went through two false starts in attempts to sell it before a holding company bought it and leased it to Varig, the Brazilian national airline in January 2004. It was operated by Varig until April 2006, and returned to Boeing in August 2006.
Under Varig's operation, slowly fell into a state of disrepair, as maintenance was put off. There are reports from customers of dirty cabins, thread bare seats, and personal TV sets on the seat backs breaking down. There's one picture of the interior 9 months before it was parked and you can see that not a single TV screen is working. The passenger was told they were shut off due to constant breakdowns. He also reported that electrical power to an entire section of the cabin was lost on one trip, but the flight continued on anyway. The plane was eventually parked as noted above.
Just like cars, there comes a time in a machine's life that it becomes more valuable for the sum of the parts rather than the whole. And that's what's happened in this case. Some of the factors are the early configuration of the airframe (Non extended range) the odd engine combination, and most important, the dismal overall shape of the craft. It's due for a D-check. That's the aviation equivalent of a frame-off restoration. It includes completely stripping the interior down to the framework and inspection of the interior structure for corrosion and damage. The engines are removed and either zero-timed or replaced with new ones. All of the hydraulic systems are drained, cleaned, flushed, and refilled. All of the electrical systems are checked and repaired as needed. There's more, but you get the idea. And it isn't cheap to do. That's why this plane is being broken up. The owners can make more money off of the parts than they can by putting it back into service.
Kinda sad really. There's a certain retired airline Captain I know who flew these, along with what he used to call "Flying Cows." If he knows about this, I'm convinced he's probably shedding a tear.
Sorry Dan. If it had been up to me, I'd a kept her flying.
"The nicer an airplane looks, the better it flies."
