747 400 The Sultan Of Burnei

Razor44

Just Landed at EIDW....impressive looking aircraft. looked great flying by the window, whats he in town for?

jamo2oo9

Possibly in for a repaint maybe?

EchoIndia

That's correct.

Kenny2012

A few shots of it landing.

http://flic.kr/p/fARv5Z
http://flic.kr/p/fB6NDu
http://flic.kr/p/fARvbp

smurfjed

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewstibbe/2011/09/22/inside-the-sultan-of-bruneis-flying-palace/

This is the interior.

Rud

Can it be seen at all from around the airport or is it gone straight into a hangar for painting?

Suasdaguna1

A vulgar display of wealth on one hand but isn't he the chap that owns a load of classic mercs and keeps them meticulously? If so all forgiven

DieselPowered

Rud wrote: »

Can it be seen at all from around the airport or is it gone straight into a hangar for painting?

Drive around the back of the Airport to the old Rwy 23 and you will see it parked. It was there earlier, not sure how long for. I didn't have the camera with me.

urajoke

DieselPowered wrote: »

Drive around the back of the Airport to the old Rwy 23 and you will see it parked. It was there earlier, not sure how long for. I didn't have the camera with me.

Still there

FWVT

I shot this today as our Ryanair flight parked a few stands down from it.

bombs away

must be nice being a dictator :P definitely financially rewarding anyway.

MuffinsDa

It was still parked next to Ryanair stands when I arrived back this morning at 9:05. The pilot pointed it out to passengers, we were parked very closed to it.

EchoIndia

V8-ALI Boeing 747-430 par Irish 251, on ipernity

FuzzyDunlop100

What's the damage in terms of repainting a 747?

I'm not looking for anyone's sensitive proprietary information, but are we talking €50k/€100k???

gerire

Yeah! But is he happy....

Lapin

smurfjed wrote: »

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewstibbe/2011/09/22/inside-the-sultan-of-bruneis-flying-palace/

This is the interior.

Those blue sofas do nothing for the place.

lufties

I know a guy that used work for him, had a very handy number and paid well, although you are on call all the time and living in Brunei can be very limiting.

ozzy jr

Surely there must be somewhere nearer to Brunei where the Sultan can get his plane repainted?

It's not like he needs to shop around looking for the best price.

HeidiHeidi

Lapin wrote: »

Those blue sofas do nothing for the place.

My thoughts exactly!

Although they're a bit more tasteful than MO'L's fitout.....

Razor44

Perhaps eirtech are the best around at the min

Shamrock231

Could also be an availablity thing, maybe there's no where closer available in the timeframe he needs it painted during?

NobodyImportant

Love the connection with his love of cars and the tail number.

EchoIndia

NobodyImportant wrote: »

Love the connection with his love of cars and the tail number.

V8 is the Brunei national prefix. Previously it was "VR-U", which dated back to its colonial status.

Scotty15

Has the 747 been brought into the hangar yet ? If not does anybody know when it will be ?

Stinicker

bombs away wrote: »

must be nice being a dictator :P definitely financially rewarding anyway.

He is not a dictator, quite the opposite and ask most Bruneian's and they will tell you he has only did very good things for their Country. He is a monarch and no different to Queen Elizabeth II etc. He is very wealthy but so is his tiny country which has immense gas and oil revenues and alot of these are used to help the native peoples, Petrol for example is around 30c/litre there, it is a unique place and I was there last year for a brief 3 day visit. Prince Jeffri has quite a bad reputation and he got quite negative publicity until the Sultan effectively clipped his wings.

jmayo

FuzzyDunlop100 wrote: »

What's the damage in terms of repainting a 747?

I'm not looking for anyone's sensitive proprietary information, but are we talking €50k/€100k???

I don't think he is too worried about the bill.

Stinicker wrote: »

He is not a dictator, quite the opposite and ask most Bruneian's and they will tell you he has only did very good things for their Country. He is a monarch and no different to Queen Elizabeth II etc. He is very wealthy but so is his tiny country which has immense gas and oil revenues and alot of these are used to help the native peoples, Petrol for example is around 30c/litre there, it is a unique place and I was there last year for a brief 3 day visit. Prince Jeffri has quite a bad reputation and he got quite negative publicity until the Sultan effectively clipped his wings.

Ehh being a bity econiomical with the facts there.
He is shag all like Lizzie II.

Under Brunei's 1959 constitution he is the head of state with full executive authority, including emergency powers which are renewed every two years, since 1962.
He is also the state's Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Defence Minister.
Last time I checked Lizzie had none of those powers.

And to a degree the country has been under a form of martial law since a revolt against the monarchy in 1962.

Granted he has splashed the wealth from the oil and gas reserves and the country and it's citizens are better off than most.

And for the plane it's decor only goes to prove the old adage money can't buy you taste and class.

Tenger

Stinicker wrote: »

.....Prince Jeffri has quite a bad reputation and he got quite negative publicity .......

Darn! So close to being art imitating life?

DieselPowered

FuzzyDunlop100 wrote: »

What's the damage in terms of repainting a 747? , but are we talking €50k/€100k???

Don't think this has been answered, but a Cessna 172 to repaint is about 10-15k and Aer Lingus recently posted that to paint up a new A320 is around the 100k mark (hence the reason the new temporary A320's are white tails), so you can work out what a B747 should be.

dukedalton

I remember watching one of the programmes of an early series of the BBC documentary Airport around 1995 and seeing his arrival into Heathrow. I couldn't get my head around the notion that this guy was the leader of a country, owned a 747 and flew it to Heathrow himself.

tippilot

Stinicker wrote: »

Prince Jeffri has quite a bad reputation..

I for one never forgave him for what he did to Ned Stark.

de biz

Did anyone manage to get a pic before it departed today?

robertxxx

smurfjed wrote: »

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewstibbe/2011/09/22/inside-the-sultan-of-bruneis-flying-palace/

This is the interior.

Money can't buy taste!

dukedalton

de biz wrote: »

Did anyone manage to get a pic before it departed today?

I think all the avgeeks were somewhere else today!

de biz

dukedalton wrote: »

I think all the avgeeks were somewhere else today!

It left at about 02.30 but believe it was pushed out of the hangar on Saturday evening!Someone probably got pics?

sneakersotoole

I have close up pictures of the aircraft being towed and of it on stand with the cabin door open. Will upload them when I am next on a pc.

ewan whose army

I lived in Brunei for a summer. Being a Brit all the locals assumed I was in the Army (Since the Sultan literally pays the UK Government to run his and train his military)

I remember seeing the whole "Royal Flight" at Brunei Airport , the B744 is the only one that isn't painted in the Royal Brunei Airlines livery, he has a one of a kind A340 with extra fuel tanks (I think its called a 340-200X or something) and a B767-200 I guess for airports where the A340 or 747 wouldn't fit.

There are photos of the interiors of some of these and I must say they are horrible! Money doesn't buy style.

Still they are better than Gadaffi's A340

I wonder what colour its going to be, I heard the 747 was never given Royal Brunei livery because the Sultan didn't like how it would look on a 747. But heck the current Royal Brunei livery is hideous imagine this on that 744



The old one was far nicer

bombs away

Stinicker wrote: »

He is not a dictator, quite the opposite and ask most Bruneian's and they will tell you he has only did very good things for their Country. He is a monarch and no different to Queen Elizabeth II etc. He is very wealthy but so is his tiny country which has immense gas and oil revenues and alot of these are used to help the native peoples, Petrol for example is around 30c/litre there, it is a unique place and I was there last year for a brief 3 day visit. Prince Jeffri has quite a bad reputation and he got quite negative publicity until the Sultan effectively clipped his wings.

Lol who are you trying to kid, his government is responsible for arbitrary detention (Amnesty International states that there are at least 5 prisoners of conscience being held for over 25 years without being convicted of a crime), there are limits on freedom of the press, religion, assembly (All media is under state control), it's well known that the majority of the profits from their oil and gas fields are siphoned through the pockets of the royal family (How exactly did you think they became so rich with a population of just 400,000, 90% of which in the rural areas are below the poverty line.)

Oh and he had the constitution changed back in 2006 to declare himself infallible, sounds an awful lot like a dictator to me :P

Tenger

bombs away wrote: »

....Oh and he had the constitution changed back in 2006 to declare himself infallible, sounds an awful lot like a dictator to me :P

I agree, however our usual definition of dictator is a Saddam/Gaddafi type ruler.
Sultan of Brunei is more like a cuddly benign dictator.
Sultan of Oman is similar but at the same time the Jihadist have made little inroads there as the people like him as their dictator.

ewan whose army

bombs away wrote: »

Lol who are you trying to kid, his government is responsible for arbitrary detention (Amnesty International states that there are at least 5 prisoners of conscience being held for over 25 years without being convicted of a crime), there are limits on freedom of the press, religion, assembly (All media is under state control), it's well known that the majority of the profits from their oil and gas fields are siphoned through the pockets of the royal family (How exactly did you think they became so rich with a population of just 400,000?)

Oh and he had the constitution changed back in 2006 to declare himself infallible, sounds an awful lot like a dictator to me :P

I have to agree. Okay Brunei (and Borneo) is a lovely place, it was the best summer of my life. But I have to say the locals were scared of saying anything about the Sultan, being a gay guy as well (homosexulity is a crime in Brunei) I was keeping a very low profile .

Brunei had a small Indonesia backed Rebellion in the 1960s that tried to oust the Sultan in a Coup which the British military quelled (This was when it was a protectorate of the UK) since then the sultan has been very paranoid I guess and banned any political parties, he is an absolute monarch, he thinks he is "guided by Allah" and so on and so thinks he is as you said Infalliable.

Brunei is a rich country but at a cost, the locals do to be fair have a really good standard of living for a South East Asian country (Free healthcare, Education etc) but there is no liberty at all.

Not forgetting the racist Undertones that only Malay people can hold certain positions in the military etc.

It isn't fair to compare him to QEII , She is bound by a Constitution, she can't get involved in politics, lobby the government or anything. She is more ceremonial, the Sultan on the other hand has complete power, he has a PM and something that resembles a parliament but they can only advise thats it.

The queen can only sign a bill from Parliament into law, that is it. Much like the President does over here

Jude13

ewan whose army wrote: »

I have to agree. Okay Brunei (and Borneo) is a lovely place, it was the best summer of my life. But I have to say the locals were scared of saying anything about the Sultan, being a gay guy as well (homosexulity is a crime in Brunei) I was keeping a very low profile .

Brunei had a small Indonesia backed Rebellion in the 1960s that tried to oust the Sultan in a Coup which the British military quelled (This was when it was a protectorate of the UK) since then the sultan has been very paranoid I guess and banned any political parties, he is an absolute monarch, he thinks he is "guided by Allah" and so on and so thinks he is as you said Infalliable.

Brunei is a rich country but at a cost, the locals do to be fair have a really good standard of living for a South East Asian country (Free healthcare, Education etc) but there is no liberty at all.

Nice insight, sound very familiar. The ruler of the country I am currently in has a 747 also and a few aribus'. He has an a380 on order and we are currently extending the runway to accommodate it.

Tenger

Jude13 wrote: »

....The ruler of the country I am currently in has a 747 also and a few aribus'. He has an a380 on order and we are currently extending the runway to accommodate it.

And to think some of us spend out time considering whether or not to extend the conservatory/garden/house.......

Jude13

Tenger wrote: »

And to think some of us spend out time considering whether or not to extend the conservatory/garden/house.......

I know, he hates flying also (I feel his pain) so he only fly's when the weather is perfect. You see his planes taking off, circling, landing and taking off again quite regularly. Oman air also has quite a new fleet and business class is quite nice, not on etihad level just yet but getting there.

We had two jags crash into each other here last week and had fatalities.

de biz

For those who missed V8-ALI you might catch it on the 28th when its due back for a touch up!

JamieIsGod

Here she is in the new livery http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled-(Brunei-Sultan's/Boeing-747-430/2319627/M/

dukedalton

Money can't buy taste!

ewan whose army

JamieIsGod wrote: »

Here she is in the new livery http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled-(Brunei-Sultan's/Boeing-747-430/2319627/M/

Here is the pic, your link was broken.

Wow I don't know what to think, why is the back 1/2 mauve? It just looks dirty. I do like the Cheat lines but meh its just as bad as the old ones

LoonyLovegood

I didn't think that the 747 could ever look cheap...

ozzy jr

dukedalton wrote: »

Money can't buy taste!

I'd rather have bad taste and a 747.

I think it looks alright.

de biz

V8-ALI is on the way will land about 5am.....(Wed)