Originally Posted by
Jughead
Where? Where all good, reliable airplanes go after 30 years of dedicated, safe service - in my recycle bin in the form of a Miller Lite can. I don't know - I assume they did what they were designed to do...
Plenty of 1 and 2 engine airplanes eventually meet their demise as well. My point was, and I guess it wasn't made clear, that 3 & 4 engine planes have dutifully served well here at Delta.
Again, everything was cheaper back in the day. I should've been born in about 1940. Life was good.
But those old -two engine- DC 9's are still here!
I was flying MD-11 F/O when the first 777's came out of Everett. One day we are on our way to Narita from ATL, and along comes a 777, I can't remember who's, might have been UAL, or maybe AA, but it was one of the first I'd seen, I think this was around 1998. Anyway, we are going about the same route past Anchorage, so on interplane I ask, "Hey, what's your fuel burn right now?" He was higher and faster than we were. They come back with about the same number, per engine, as ours...but we had 3 of them!
I looked at the Capt. and said, "Wow, they're burning 1/3 less fuel than we are. If oil prices go up, these things will be toast!"
And oil was very cheap back then, compared to today. And it's not just about fuel, but about maintaining 50% more engines, on a 3 engine airplane or 100% more engines on a 4 banger.
So where did our MD 11's end up, World? Fed Ex? I can't remember, but I know our old DC 8's went to UPS. I don't remember where our old 747's went, it was before my time at DAL.