Aer Lingus B747

Our man in Havana · 02-10-2005 2:34pm #1

I was watching the prog on RTE1 about the Popes visit in 1979 and He left on an Aerlingus B747.

Did they actaully own a 747 or did they just hire one out and paint it up for the occasion?

PhoenixRising · 02-10-2005 2:38pm

Yes they operated a few 747's (something like 3 or 4 but I could be wrong) back the late seventies and eighties. Don't know if they owned them or leased them. In fact I think Aer Lingus was one of the many launch customers for the original 747.

HelterSkelter · 02-10-2005 2:41pm

murphaph · 02-10-2005 2:54pm

PhoenixRising wrote:

In fact I think Aer Lingus was one of the many launch customers for the original 747.

Indeed'n they were. The linked image shows 747 No. 1 with representative flight attendants from all the first customers present. I believe that the lovely miss fifth from the right represented AerLingus. The company's logo can be seen on the bottom row, 7th from the nose (It's the dark, almost square green logo, with the shamrock in the centre).

747 #1

Our man in Havana · 02-10-2005 2:59pm

I see the upper deck only has 3 windows. Mad!

They sure do strip them when they end up in the grave yard.

BrianD · 02-10-2005 4:18pm

Apparently, Aer Lingus was one of the few (if only) airlines to convey the Pope other than Alitalia.

BrianD3 · 02-10-2005 4:23pm

More info on Aer Lingus 747s here:
http://www.ifsd.ie/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4403&#26272
Looks like EI-ASJ has joined EI-BED in being broken up/scrapped. EI-ASI was still intact as of March 2004 but it may have been scrapped since.

BuffyBot · 02-10-2005 4:49pm

I see the upper deck only has 3 windows. Mad!

The 747-100's only had quite a small upper-deck. Original plans had it in mind for use as a cocktail bar etc..unsurprisingly most airlines opted to fill it with seats instead.

Victor · 02-10-2005 6:22pm

Bond-007 wrote:

I see the upper deck only has 3 windows. Mad!

Its also odd seeing passenger windows on the front of an aircraft. :eek:

Current aircraft seem to have a slightly different nose (maybe its just an angle thing). http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/flash.html

Capt'n Midnight · 02-10-2005 7:10pm

AFAIK Al Italia were the first airline any pope used. Aer Lingus were the second.

Bond-007 wrote:

I see the upper deck only has 3 windows. Mad!

They sure do strip them when they end up in the grave yard.

Back when it was designed aircraft speed was doubling every decade and military aircraft had hit Mach 2 so Boeing played it safe and designed them to be converted into freighters. That's why the cockpit is above the cargo deck. On later models they extended it back to fit more seats in but they had to change the spiral starcase and add a second one at the back to comply with evacuation regulations. B%20747%20cargo.jpg

murphaph · 02-10-2005 9:43pm

I love jumbo jets, the A380 is a wonderful piece of engineering, but it ain't a jumbo!

Capt'n Midnight · 02-10-2005 11:24pm

murphaph wrote:

I love jumbo jets, the A380 is a wonderful piece of engineering, but it ain't a jumbo!

Note the relative sizes of the engines

murphaph · 03-10-2005 2:28pm

It's still not a jumbo and will never have the personality of the 747

parsi · 03-10-2005 2:33pm

The Junmbos were great - part of the School tours to Dublin involved Jumbo up from Shannon and train home... cool (especially if you're a kid..)

secret_squirrel · 04-10-2005 7:41pm

murphaph wrote:

It's still not a jumbo and will never have the personality of the 747

You should see it taxi-ing around Toulouse airports taxi-ways under its own power - its one impressive beastie.

murphaph · 04-10-2005 7:57pm

secret_squirrel wrote:

You should see it taxi-ing around Toulouse airports taxi-ways under its own power - its one impressive beastie.

I know it's seriously impressive as an engineering feat. It's still not a jumbo jet though. I think it's the hump

morlan · 04-10-2005 10:01pm

Did anyone notice that the tri-colour is the wrong way around? Is it meant to be like that?

link

Sarsfield · 04-10-2005 10:26pm

morlan wrote:

Did anyone notice that the tri-colour is the wrong way around? Is it meant to be like that?

Yes. On the other side of the aircraft it will be the correct way around. It's a convention on aircraft. I don't know if it applies to all nations flags (I think it does), but check out this Ryanair aircraft EI-DHJ. If the flag was on a flagpole on the top of the plane that's how it would look from each side.

Starboard side

Port side

And check the tail of this American Airlines plane.

AA

I'm not sure about the Swiss one

morlan · 04-10-2005 10:32pm

Interesting. Any logical reason why?

Sarsfield · 04-10-2005 10:34pm

morlan wrote:

Interesting. Any logical reason why?

I've been editing while you were typing, but as per the previous post, it's probably suggesting the forward motion of the aircraft and this is how the flag would look from each side with a 550kt headwind!

murphaph · 04-10-2005 10:47pm

Ahhh, just when I thought I wasn't going to learn anything new today, along comes boards and it's knowledgable members with a comfortable 15 odd minutes to spare!

Victor · 05-10-2005 8:11pm

It is indeed to indicate the forward motion. If the flag was on a vehicle or a ship, this is how you would see it.

Capt'n Midnight · 05-10-2005 9:43pm

www.aerlingus.ie - click on about us and then the menu at the side.

Projected Fleet December 2005
European Routes
Aircraft Type Quantity Engines
Airbus A321 6 2 x CFM56-5B3
Airbus A320 21 2 x CFM56-5B4
Transatlantic Routes
Aircraft Type Quantity Engines
Airbus A330-300 4 2 x GE CF680E1A3
Airbus A330-200 3 2 x GE CF680E1A4

LFCFan · 06-10-2005 12:59pm

I stayed in the Radisson LAX hotel 1 night on my Honeymoon and they have a restaurant in the top floor. It has an amazing view of the Runways in LAX and I got the watch a Jumbo landing and another one taking off up close. It's a class looking aircraft. Would love to get a spin in one

Hotblack Desiato · 06-10-2005 9:06pm

Sarsfield wrote:

On the other side of the aircraft it will be the correct way around. It's a convention on aircraft.

Funny that it's the 'right' way around on this one but not on this one.

Check out the 5 engined Aer Lingus 747 here

parsi · 06-10-2005 9:57pm

Good to see that google agrees with he consensus of Boards :

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=575508

embraer170 · 06-10-2005 11:56pm

Apparently, Aer Lingus was one of the few (if only) airlines to convey the Pope other than Alitalia.

I remember Pope John Paul II flying Austrian Airlines at least once.

Capt'n Midnight · 07-10-2005 7:07pm

ninja900 wrote:

Check out the 5 engined Aer Lingus 747 here

It's carrying an engine - back for repairs or something
The Air India jumbo that was blown up on the way to Canada had one too, they reckon that if it hadn't been for it the autopilot could have recovered from the damage. On a sidenote the engines of the 777 are too big to be airlifted by anything by other than the big Antonov's which means you might have to wait for it to be sent by ship if you have to land at an airport with a short runway.

Third_Echelon · 07-10-2005 7:36pm

Yeah the 747 has to be my fav plane...

I had the pleasure of flying on the Aer Lingus 747's to and from the world cup in USA in 1994....

Would be nice to see some boeing 747s back in service with Aer Lingus.

Actually I hadn't seen a 747 in Dublin Airport for a long time, but a few weeks ago there was a Singapore Airlines cargo 747 in Dublin... Nice to see...

secret_squirrel · 07-10-2005 9:29pm

Third_Echelon wrote:

Would be nice to see some boeing 747s back in service with Aer Lingus.

Not a chance I am afraid. afaik Dublin's run way isnt long enough for a fully loaded 747-400. Aer Lingus will either continue with A330's poss A350's later. Or with the 777 or later Dreamliner.

That Singapore 747 comes in twice a week. Sundays and Wednesday's if I remember rightly. Stays overnight then fecks off.

There's also a DHL 747 there lots.

Victor · 07-10-2005 10:22pm

secret_squirrel wrote:

Stays overnight then fecks off.

The slut.

PhilCurran · 07-10-2005 10:26pm

secret_squirrel wrote:

Not a chance I am afraid. afaik Dublin's run way isnt long enough for a fully loaded 747-400. Aer Lingus will either continue with A330's poss A350's later. Or with the 777 or later Dreamliner.

That Singapore 747 comes in twice a week. Sundays and Wednesday's if I remember rightly. Stays overnight then fecks off.

If Dublin's runway isn't long enough Aer Lingus could operate the 747 from Knock, I hear that it's runway can take a fully laden B52

Victor · 07-10-2005 10:32pm

PhilCurran wrote:

If Dublin's runway isn't long enough Aer Lingus could operate the 747 from Knock, I hear that it's runway can take a fully laden B52

B52s aren't all that big.

PhilCurran · 07-10-2005 11:03pm

That was a joke on the alleged NATO involvement in the financing of the airport

Anyway AFAIK 747s landed there in the 80's & I think I recall reading bout the An225 stopping off there before

dowlingm · 07-10-2005 11:18pm

And neither is Knock's runway

EIDW 10/28 2637m
EIKN 09/27 2300m

Capt'n Midnight · 08-10-2005 12:47pm

B52s don't take off with a full load of fuel anyway to reduce stress on the airframe. Then they have aerial refueling to fill the tanks.

The antonov 225 - wasn't that carying Locomotives for CIE (with some bridge equipment it was the biggest load ever flown etc) The 225 doesn't have the short field abilites of the smaller(!) 124 needing up to 3,500m to takeoff at full load. The 124 just needs 1,200 meters of grass - source =
http://vectorsite.net/avantgt.html

What antonov say.
http://www.antonov.com/products/air/transport/AN-124/its.xml (civilian 100 specs)
http://www.antonov.com/products/air/transport/AN-225/its.xml

PS. Next time you are in Derry you could hire one out http://www.airfoyle.co.uk/

RainyDay · 08-10-2005 8:50pm

I did some work in Shannon for Aer Rianta in the early 90's so I was doing the Dublin/Shannon run frequently. As all EI transatlantic flights had to stop at SNN in those days, I frequently ended up on the Jumbo's for this very short run. They had only got up & levelled out when they'd be dropping down again.

One day in Shannon, there was a Swissair 747 doing what I presume were pilot practice landings & take-offs - He'd land on the runway and then take off straight away at the other end before circling back. It was pretty impressive to watch.

Victor · 09-10-2005 11:25am

RainyDay wrote:

One day in Shannon, there was a Swissair 747 doing what I presume were pilot practice landings & take-offs - He'd land on the runway and then take off straight away at the other end before circling back. It was pretty impressive to watch.

Shannon is used a bit for "touch and gos". It freaked out my sister once when she was living in Shannon - they thought a plane had been hi-jacked as it kept flying over them every 5 minutes.

Third_Echelon · 09-10-2005 3:11pm

Flying out of frankfurt or stuttgart, can't remember which one it was, I saw the antonov. It was f**king massive..... Well impressive.

On our take off when just up in the air you could see it on the ground beginning to unload its cargo. Its wingspan was biggest i had ever seen. There was actually a great program about it on Discovery a while ago.... great show.

Capt'n Midnight · 10-10-2005 8:04pm

Small movie ( 891KB ) of 747 landing in Hong Kong ?
apparently it's fairly normal for that airport.

http://gpmb.shacknet.nu/movies/Crashes/crash%20landing.mpg

PhoenixRising · 10-10-2005 10:13pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Small movie ( 891KB ) of 747 landing in Hong Kong ?
apparently it's fairly normal for that airport.

http://gpmb.shacknet.nu/movies/Crashes/crash%20landing.mpg

Yeah that was Kai Tak. It's now closed for obvious reasons. Aircraft on approach to runway 13 had to make a crazy 60 or 70 degree turn at around 500ft due to high ground on the approach. Crazy place to put an airport. Although the Italians take the prize for building airports in the stupidest of places with countless examples of runways orientated towards mountains and hills in very close proximity to the airport.

That guy in the 747 video was battling a strong crosswind as well.

Here's a video of an Airbus 321 trying to land in a really strong crosswind:
http://www.airbusdriver.net/A321Landing.asx

JackieChan · 11-10-2005 9:29am

Wow, that 747 landing in H.K. appeared to operate like a harrier!!!
Amazing stuff!

Can you imagine how ****less you'd feel if you were on that A321 !!

Third_Echelon · 11-10-2005 10:48am

Interesting Article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Tak_International_Airport

Solair · 15-10-2005 1:38pm

Aer Lingus' 747s were at the end of their useful lives at that stage and had to go. The smaller Airbus widebody planes that replaced them are vastly more fuel efficient and more suited to Aer Lingus' transatlantic routes as they're able to offer a wider variety of destinations and more frequent flights. There's very little point in flying with a half-full 747 or A340 you spend all the money on the fuel.

Aer Lingus are rapidly moving towards an all-airbus fleet so, if you do see a larger transatlantic plane come on stream it'll be an A340.

The Airbus A350 (super efficient aircraft as yet not shipping) may also feature on Aer Lingus transatlantic in the future. Not the boeing equivilant.

They're sticking to one manufacturer to keep costs down as Airbus aircraft, unlike boeing, are extremely similar to eachother in terms of operation and maintenence. So, for most functions crews don't need major retraining for each aircraft.

The A350 looks rather cool though.

secret_squirrel · 15-10-2005 1:52pm

Solair wrote:

The Airbus A350 (super efficient aircraft as yet not shipping) may also feature on Aer Lingus transatlantic in the future. Not the boeing equivilant.

They're sticking to one manufacturer to keep costs down as Airbus aircraft, unlike boeing, are extremely similar to eachother in terms of operation and maintenence.

Aer Lingus wont necessarily choose Airbus for their next transatlantic fleet - although a single manufacturer fleet type has persuasive benefits its still possible that Beoing may offer a deal that outweighs this.

Aer Lingus B747

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