How do they get here......?

[johnny_t]

I was on a plane the other day and noticed that it had American Plug Sockets out in the galley and had been redesignated from a US carrier to EasyJet, which set me thinking........


A Boeing 737 is designed for short-haul flights, and is built in Seattle.

If you fly from Leeds to Paris, you go on an Embraer 135, which is built in Brazil and has a range of somewhere under 2000 miles.

So how do they get here ? Do they fly in short hops via Greenland or Do they get transported on the back of big planes like a space shuttle or Do they stick the wings on afterwards like an Airbus or what ?



EDIT: Oh B*gger - Wrong Forum. Mods ???

+++++++
Done it.

Rupert
++++++

 

[rightsaidfred]

Hi johnny
yes it is the wrong forum but it'll be the only time I am qualified to answer a question posted here

The quoted range for a jet assumes an awful lot of things, especially the weight of the aircraft. Aircraft weights are broken down into a lot of different elements, each of which has a name. The Maximum Take Off Weight (MTOW) is obvious! It is made up of a Zero Fuel Weight (ZFW) and the Fuel On Board (FOB). The ZFW is made up of the Aircraft Prepared for Service Weight (APS) and the payload. It is rare, in the big jet field, that an aircraft at its maximum allowed ZFW can get a full fuel load on board without exceeding its MTOW (in a 747-400 this may be as much as a 70 tonne shortfall). If you are ferrying an aircraft, you will have no passengers (10 tonnes or so on a 737) no galleys or catering (another 3 to 4 tonnes) maybe no seats - though not always - etc etc. This means that with the fuel tanks filled to the brims, the aircraft is way below its MTOW. The knock on effect of this is that the aircraft can climb far higher and fuel burn per km goes down as altitude increases (generally). So, with a full fuel load on a ferry flight you get a lot further than the aircrafts quoted range.

If you are going trans - atlantic, say, and can't get across the pond in one go (and it isn't, actually, that far from Canada to Ireland) then you can use what is known as the Spruce Goose route - I did it once in an RAF HS748! This goes from the East coast of the states across to Goose Bay or Gander in Canada, then you can go up through Iqualit (Frobisher) in Canada, through Sondestrom or Narsarsuaq in Greenland, Keflavik in Iceland and Stornoway in the Hebrides. As I said, though, routing Gander to Shannon (on the West coast of Ireland) is well within the capabilities of many.

If you don't like the cold, you can go south abouts through the Bahamas, Azores or Madeira and on through Lisbon or Porto.

To add a further advantage, you can fit ferry tanks to some aircraft to give extra capacity - though I've never heard of anyone doing so in a large jet.

 

[johnny_t]

Wow. Thanks.

Those General Discussion boys don't know what they're missing out on

 

[HDRW]

...
To add a further advantage, you can fit ferry tanks to some aircraft to give extra capacity - though I've never heard of anyone doing so in a large jet.

I know of a couple who bought a Mooney (single engine 4-seater) in the 'States, had it fitted with a ferry tank (took up the rear 2 seats), an HF Radio, and an in-cockpit oil topup system, and flew it back themselves. It took 19 hours! I didn't know them well enough to ask the obvious question...

Cheers,

Howard

 

[pickles]

Anyone interested in aeroplanes should buy todays Guardian newspaper and have a look at the picture across pages 22 and 23

Guaranteed to be worth the 70p purchase price

 

[noodlz]

What forum was that on I might actually learn something