Good Morning

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 06/24/2020 at 09:00 • Filed to: good morning oppo, wingspan

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Have a 737. But not just any 737. It’s a Super 737.

British Airways Boeing 737-236Adv (G-BGDS) River Severn at Düsseldorf, 1985. Delivered to British Airways on September 11, 1980, the aircraft passed through GB Airways, back to British Airways, Pacific AirCorp (as N947PG), and went into storage after serving with Aerolineas Argentinas (as LV-ZTT) in 2000.

The 737-200 was lengthened over the -100 to add a couple of rows of seats, and also had improved aerodynamics, automatic wheel brakes, more powerful engines, more fuel capacity, and longer range. The -200 was the last 737 to have the JT8D turbofan cigars under the wings.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 09:08

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Here are a couple of guys building their own 737s.

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 09:12

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“The -200 was the last 737 to have engines that fit between the wing and runway”

FTFY

f86sabre > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 09:16

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The -200 was good fun. The skin splices were junk and helped me pay off my school loans in overtime from designing repairs. 

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 06/24/2020 at 09:26

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Needs more balsa wood. Also, I hope that second guy got his MCAS sorted out before he went flying. That said, my college roommate flew RC planes, and his motto was, “If you don’t want to crash it, don’t fly it.” Hopefully that’s not Boeing’s motto too.

ttyymmnn > f86sabre 06/24/2020 at 09:31

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The skin splices were junk

Is there a pattern here?

Also, did you see that L1011 I posted for you the other day?

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 09:43

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Foam is the new balsa. Properly braced, that stuff is amazing. It’s also cheap and readily available. I’m sure you’ve seen FliteTest. They built a whole business, no, movement on Dollar Store foam planes. I’ve built a couple of them. Crash them and they’re often repairable with a little hot glue, clear tape, and maybe some toothpicks . If it’s really bad, a new sheet of foam is a dollar and most of their designs use only a couple of sheets.

This one had a wing failure and augured in pretty hard. The repair took about fifteen minutes. If I ever find time, I’ll build a new nose cone. Until then, it’s perfectly flyable and I really don’t have to worry about crashes.

Ramy, the guy in the second video I posted, has some amazing scratch builds. Unfortunately, he’s a better builder than pilot. The end result is that he has some amazing crashes.

user314 > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 09:46

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I love when airplanes are named like boats . Gives them a sense of history that a simple reg number doesn’t quite match.

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 06/24/2020 at 09:51

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Maybe Ramy needs to hire a pilot. Aaron Copland was a fantastic composer, but a lousy conductor. Leonard Bernstein was the one who truly brought Copland’s music to life.

Have no seen FliteTest. I’ll check it out.

ttyymmnn > user314 06/24/2020 at 09:58

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Agreed. Or any name, for that matter. My favorite names are the series of H names given to the H.P 42/45: Hannibal , Horsa , Hanno , Hadrian , Heracles , Horatius , Hengist , and Helena . Jet Blue still names their airplanes. I’m sure others do as well. 

Here’s Blue La La .

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > WilliamsSW 06/24/2020 at 10:07

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Well if you include flat-spotting the nacelles on the Classics and NGs...

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 10:07

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I bet the neighbors were glad to see this one retired. 

WilliamsSW > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom 06/24/2020 at 10:08

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I’m counting those as “not fitting” lol

user314 > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 10:15

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Of course I can’t edit it now, but I meant “ named, like boats”.  

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 10:17

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You’re right about Ramy. At the very least, he should build his flying skills with less complex, less expensive models.

The older FliteTest videos focus on building and flying. The newer FliteTest videos get a bit crazy. It’s easy to be crazy when the cost of entry and repair is so low.

They even offer free plans if you want to print them out and build your own. With extensive video documentation of how to build the planes from the plans, it’s easy to get started. They also sell kits with their own laser-cut foam to make it even easier.

ttyymmnn > user314 06/24/2020 at 10:31

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I knew what you meant, the comma notwithstanding. 

facw > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 10:46

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Pretty sure Icelandair does (named after Icelandic volcanoes)

Also:

https://airlinegeeks.com/2016/10/10/how-some-north-american-airlines-play-the-name-game/

https://airlinegeeks.com/2016/10/18/part-two-how-some-airlines-in-central-europe-play-the-name-game/

https://airlinegeeks.com/2016/10/31/how-some-airlines-in-northern-europe-and-russia-play-the-name-game/

ttyymmnn > facw 06/24/2020 at 10:56

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Yup. This beauty is He kla Aurora , which I caught at DFW a couple of years ago.

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 15:18

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Qantas does:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_of_Qantas_aircraft

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 15:23

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From the short period when British Airways assumed that because people were looking at a plane they’d assume the “Airways” bit. It didn’t last - they’re back to painting the full name on now, because people are dumb, and because British Midland A irlines and British Aircraft Corporation also exist.

ttyymmnn > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 06/24/2020 at 15:27

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Because all great footballers have one name, airlines should too. We don’t say “ Delta Air Lines,” we say “Delta.” Same with American and United. Continental. Braniff. Aeroflot. Those are just the ones I can come  up with off the top of my head. There are surely many more.

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 17:17

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It must really suck growing up as a football-playing kid named Pele, M aradona, Ronaldo etc, knowing that however good you get, you’ll only ever be “the other...”

f86sabre > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 19:06

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The 707 was a tank and Boeing made the 727 and 737 much lighter. 757/767 were better. It was just a swing of the design pendulum. 

ranwhenparked > user314 06/24/2020 at 22:38

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You can also see the resemblance to ships in some of the classic livery. D ark blue lower fuselage, white upper like a dark hull/white superstructure on a ship, and, of course, the practice of painting the tail in a company identifying pattern comes from shipping lines’ corporate  funnel colors. Canadian Pacific Airlines even used the exact same design as Canadian Pacific Steamship, just swapped green for orange. 

ranwhenparked > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 22:40

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Apparently, it was still listed in storage as of 2009 - most likely, it has finally been scrapped since, but I wonder if its still sitting around rotting somewhere?

ttyymmnn > ranwhenparked 06/24/2020 at 22:54

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I tried to see if there is a record of where it is or was stored , but came up empty. I was hoping to find a photo of it in a boneyard somewhere. 

ranwhenparked > ttyymmnn 06/24/2020 at 22:58

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They often seem to fade into obscurity. There’s a lot of very early 737s and 747s with ultimate fates unknown - is anyone really  still storing a pre-Advanced 737-200? There’s 3 built in 1969 with “stored” as their last known status, but they can’t possibly still be intact, can they? 

ttyymmnn > ranwhenparked 06/24/2020 at 23:07

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Hard to imagine. Probably turned into beer cans by now.