Air China - Beijing to Dublin

Rabbitt

relaxed wrote: »

so any further detail on this actually happening?

Malicious gossip possibly?

urajoke

Rabbitt wrote: »

Malicious gossip possibly?

Malicious !!!! Seriously

malicious
məˈlɪʃəs/
adjective
1.
characterized by malice; intending or intended to do harm.
"he was found guilty of malicious damage"
synonyms: spiteful, malevolent, hostile, bitter, venomous, poisonous, evil-intentioned, ill-natured, evil, baleful, vindictive, vengeful, vitriolic, rancorous, malign, malignant, pernicious, mean, nasty, harmful, hurtful, mischievous, destructive, wounding, cruel, unkind, defamatory; More
antonyms: benevolent

Gossip yes but I doubt it's malicious.

Rabbitt

urajoke wrote: »

Malicious !!!! Seriously



Gossip yes but I doubt it's malicious.

Maybe we need to look at the bigger picture here and the forces at play.

EchoIndia

Foggy43 wrote: »

BA kept well out over the ocean to avoid possible attack from other African countries. They flew west of St Helena and the Ascension Islands.

Really? My recollection is that only SAA did not have overflying rights and that the European carriers all overflew Africa to JNB. Pre- the advent of the longer-range 747 variants, I imagine services would have involved an en-route stop (e.g. at Nairobi) in any case.

roundymac

There is an article in the Dec issue of Airliner World on British Caledonian in which it states " British Airways operated 2 747-2D3Bs in a hybrid livery complete with British Caledonian titles and logo. These aircraft were operated to destinations in Africa from which BA was banned due to it's continuation of flights to aparteid South Africa"

urajoke

Rabbitt wrote: »

Maybe we need to look at the bigger picture here and the forces at play.

Go on then and while you're at it explain how and why it's malicious.

EchoIndia

roundymac wrote: »

There is an article in the Dec issue of Airliner World on British Caledonian in which it states " British Airways operated 2 747-2D3Bs in a hybrid livery complete with British Caledonian titles and logo. These aircraft were operated to destinations in Africa from which BA was banned due to it's continuation of flights to apartheid South Africa"

BCAL had operated scheduled services to places like Accra and Freetown (though probably with 707s and DC-10s rather than 747s). I haven't seen any photos of the hybrid livery described and would be interested to do so.

Foggy43

EchoIndia wrote: »

Really? My recollection is that only SAA did not have overflying rights and that the European carriers all overflew Africa to JNB. Pre- the advent of the longer-range 747 variants, I imagine services would have involved an en-route stop (e.g. at Nairobi) in any case.

I never said BA didnt have overflying rights to South Africa. The flight planners felt it would be safer to keep clear of mainland southern Africa, just in case. I suppose if you look at a map it wasn't too much extra in time/cost to keep out over the South Atlantic until the Ascension Islands.

EchoIndia

Foggy43 wrote: »

I suppose if you look at a map it wasn't too much extra in time/cost to keep out over the South Atlantic until the Ascension Islands.

Ascension Island (singular) is in the middle of the South Atlantic and 1,000 nautical miles from the African coast. Routeing via or west of there would certainly keep a flight well clear of harm! The airspace of countries such as Angola may have been avoided during the internal strife there, though Angola Airlines continued to fly, serving Lisbon and a couple of other European destinations with their 707s.

roundymac

EchoIndia wrote: »

I haven't seen any photos of the hybrid livery described and would be interested to do so.

You can find one on page 48 of the Dec issue of Airliner World. Their first 747 was leased from EI, it's UK reg was G-BDPZ (c/n 19745).

Comhrá

roundymac wrote: »

You can find one on page 48 of the Dec issue of Airliner World. Their first 747 was leased from EI, it's UK reg was G-BDPZ (c/n 19745).

This aircraft was affectionately referred to by BA crew as the Paddy Zulu.

Foggy43

tippman1 wrote: »

This aircraft was affectionately referred to by BA crew as the Paddy Zulu.

I had the privelage on working on G-BDPU and G-BBPV. 20 years ago plus! I dont think I ever encountered G-BDPZ. I think the only BCAL or then an ex BCAL 747 I encountered was G-HUGE. A B747 Combi. It came to LHR and operated the LHR-DME-NRT route. I think it was DME but definetly a Moscow airport.

A319er

Those EI 747s certainly got around, recall a Sydney LHR flt on QF
Aircraft was EI-BED b747 used by QF for the AUssie Olympics
And even did FRA To Jamaica on EI B747 one winter, that aircraft
Positioned FRA DUb as a revenue flight packed with bicycles
For pack packers coming to Ireland , some sight 50 bikes on an aircraft

EchoIndia

Several photos here of G-BDPZ:

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=&airlinesearch=&countrysearch=UK%25&specialsearch=&daterange=&keywords=g-bdpz&range=&sort_order=year+desc&page_limit=15&thumbnails=

The cheatline was the Aer Lingus one overpainted and it was only at the conclusion of the BA & BCAL leases (which ran from 1976 to 1981) that it acquired the new green top livery.

Mister R

tippman1 wrote: »

This aircraft was affectionately referred to by BA crew as the Paddy Zulu.

Sure that was with affection :pac: that terms was usually used in a derogatory manner by some over there in the 70s.

Dacian

EchoIndia wrote: »

BCAL had operated scheduled services to places like Accra and Freetown (though probably with 707s and DC-10s rather than 747s). I haven't seen any photos of the hybrid livery described and would be interested to do so.

This months Airliners World has said photo's

Manuel

EchoIndia wrote: »

Several photos here of G-BDPZ:

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=&airlinesearch=&countrysearch=UK%25&specialsearch=&daterange=&keywords=g-bdpz&range=&sort_order=year+desc&page_limit=15&thumbnails=

The cheatline was the Aer Lingus one overpainted and it was only at the conclusion of the BA & BCAL leases (which ran from 1976 to 1981) that it acquired the new green top livery.

"British airways" with a small "a"! That looks ridiculous!

And it looks like a compromise because the windows of the upper deck got in the way of a big "A"!

Was this on all their 747-200s at the time? Or the whole fleet??

Mind you, it was equally ridiculous when they changed to just "British" ....

LXFlyer

Manuel wrote: »

"British airways" with a small "a"! That looks ridiculous!

And it looks like a compromise because the windows of the upper deck got in the way of a big "A"!

Was this on all their 747-200s at the time? Or the whole fleet??

Mind you, it was equally ridiculous when they changed to just "British" ....

That was the standard across the fleet. The "a" was always small.

I'm now realising that I'm getting older when someone posts a question such as that!!

Here's a Trident as an example: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hawker_Siddeley_HS-121_Trident_3B,_British_Airways_AN0931905.jpg

Rabbitt

lxflyer wrote: »

That was the standard across the fleet. The "a" was always small.

I'm now realising that I'm getting older when someone posts a question such as that!!

Here's a Trident as an example: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hawker_Siddeley_HS-121_Trident_3B,_British_Airways_AN0931905.jpg

I'm just curious, what's the longest commercial flight operating today?
Is there a London - Sydney direct flight?

LXFlyer

Rabbitt wrote: »

I'm just curious, what's the longest commercial flight operating today?
Is there a London - Sydney direct flight?

No direct London/Sydney - that's just a little too far!

Wikipedia lists it in distance as Sydney/Dallas - 13,804km (15 hrs 25 min) with a 747-400ER (QANTAS).

The longest flight from Europe is one I've done myself - Paris to Santiago by Air France, at 11,652km (14 hours 10 min).

CaptainSkidmark

Anyone have an idea what they will use for this flight?

jamo2oo9

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

Anyone have an idea what they will use for this flight?

This is only speculation. I saw a tweet from Shannon Air Spotters page saying Air China to start flying to Dublin. There has been no confirmed news about this

ddarcy

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

This is only speculation. I saw a tweet from Shannon Air Spotters page saying Air China to start flying to Dublin. There has been no confirmed news about this

If this is true, Air China does have 787's on order (a quick google search shows 15 on order). So this would be the type of route that would be perfect for that aircraft.

Japan Airlines flies from San Diego to Tokyo non stop (5557 NM direct, so it would actually be much more in reality) with a 787 and that would be into a head wind and a similar runway to Dublin (~9400 ft long). Plus you would have a much warmer climate to deal with as well.

urajoke

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

This is only speculation. I saw a tweet from Shannon Air Spotters page saying Air China to start flying to Dublin. There has been no confirmed news about this

Most likely got their info from this topic. So I wouldn't take anything other than an official source as confirmation at this point.

mooseknunkle

lxflyer wrote: »

No direct London/Sydney - that's just a little too far!

It has been done

http://www.airwaysmuseum.com/Qantas%201st%20England-Aust%20non-stop%201989.htm

Todd Gack

mooseknunkle wrote: »

It has been done

http://www.airwaysmuseum.com/Qantas%201st%20England-Aust%20non-stop%201989.htm

Not as a scheduled commercial flight it hasn't

mooseknunkle

Todd Gack wrote: »

Not as a scheduled commercial flight it hasn't

Yeah i know,was just saying that there has been a direct flight done

jamo2oo9

urajoke wrote: »

Most likely got their info from this topic. So I wouldn't take anything other than an official source as confirmation at this point.

Nope, I made this thread after I saw it on Twitter so I asked here to see if anyone had any news of this happening but atm nothing's set in concrete yet

Tenger

Rabbitt wrote: »

I'm just curious, what's the longest commercial flight operating today?
Is there a London - Sydney direct flight?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-stop_flight#Currently_scheduled_.28top_30.2C_by_distance.29

Current longest scheduled flight is QF7 Sydney-Dallas which is 15 hrs 25 mins, 13804 kms using a B744ER.

Singapore Airlines did have a Newark-Singapore all Business class flight using an A345. This was almost 19 hrs but was discontinued 3 weeks ago.

Mister R

Interesting that the longest 757-300 flight will be the Aer Lingus Dublin-Toronto according to that wikipedia page.