Interesting aviation facts discovered on the Qantas tour.
She called the display aircraft "kerosine budgies".
When the 747 was due to be flown to Longreach for display, 1200 pilots applied to do the historic flight. The hand-picked pilot and crew had 25 years experience with the aircarft. In the stripped diwn aircraft, the pilot managed to stop in less than 1 Km on the 1.6 Km runway. Fully loaded, it normally requires 3 to 4 Km. It took a 19 point U-turn to get back to the terminal building.
The 747 has 18 tyres at 3k each. During a tyre lifetime they are recapped 18 times, then given to local farmers. Pressure is 210 psi, filled with Nitrogen.
At two pressurising cycles per flight, an aircraft's lifetime with Qantas is 19000 cycles. One flight a day is a life of 26 years.
There is 12000 tons pressure on cabin doors so, unlike the movies, you can't open those doors during flight.
The 707 on display was built in '59. Was refitted in 1980's for sale. However, it had one major disadvantage which was that the Saudi's did not want to buy it because the seats were pigskin leather.In it's heyday, with gold plated plumbing and fittings installed by a Saudi Prince, it's price at an air show was $51M. Eventually, it was labandoned and eft in open storage. Animals lived in it. It was bought for one pound. Took two weeks to clean it and much restoration work.
No comments:
Post a Comment