Odds and Ends: Fixing the 787; PW GTF; ANA to retire 747s

Fixing the 787: Avionics magazine has a long article on fixing the Boeing 787 battery issues.

PW GTF: The Hartford Courant has a piece profiling the quiet nature of the Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbo Fan engine. While news articles talk about noise, this is pretty abstract for readers. Bombardier has the best, single source we’ve seen for noise illustrations, with several links within this site. Even that is somewhat abstract, so BBD has this link to compare noise with urban sounds.

ANA to retire 747s: They’ll be gone this year. JAL retired them in 2011. Good luck, Airbus, selling them the A380. ANA also returns the 787 to service Saturday.

  • We’re at Boeing today and tomorrow for Paris Air Show briefings. Look for 737 MAX and 777 (today’s model) postings. Everything else is embargoed to June 11 (Current Market Outlook) and June 14 (everything else).

7 Comments on “Odds and Ends: Fixing the 787; PW GTF; ANA to retire 747s

  1. ANA purchased 47 of the jetliners and conducted its maiden 747 flight in 1979. The carrier initially planned to retire the aircraft in 2015, but brought the date forward because the introduction of the latest Boeing 787 had progressed smoothly.

    😐

  2. ANA operates the B747 with 323 seats (found that on Google, SeatGuru doesn’t feature it any more). Its B777-300ER have 212 and 247 seats, respectively. ANA is a very odd example of how few seats you can actually install in an aircraft. Their B787-8 has 156 seats.
    Actually, the A380 would be quite a good aircraft for ANA, as it offers the maximum of floor space at lowest cost. You have to have the demand though …

    • Actually, ANA has multiple 787 interior configurations for different markets. The 156 you quote has a large business class for long duration flights. The short range intra-Japan configuration has more like 260 seats with small or non-existient business class and minimal galley/lav’s. This is why it is so important to use a standard configuration (even if out of date and not accurate for modern configurations) for comparison of passenger counts between models.

      747’s were used for the short haul routes before other wide bodies were available, but part of the equation is how fast a plane can turnaround and this works against really large planes.

  3. And by the way: where are all these B747 going?
    Freighter market weak, no airline needing that much lift and widebody lines pumping out more than 25 aircraft a month (combined Airbus and Boeing: 10xA330, 8xB777, 5xB787, 2xB747, 2xA380). Sale for scrap?

  4. Schorsch :
    And by the way: where are all these B747 going?
    Freighter market weak, no airline needing that much lift and widebody lines pumping out more than 25 aircraft a month (combined Airbus and Boeing: 10xA330, 8xB777, 5xB787, 2xB747, 2xA380). Sale for scrap?

    Actually, it is presently 8.3 x 777, 7 x 787 & 1.75 x 748.

  5. “However, due to its bad fuel economy and other reasons, ANA will retire the plane gradually, starting from June.”

    Still leaves the option open for the A380, depending on the ‘other reasons’

  6. The Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbo Fan engine is not only quieter but reduces the amoumt of pollution being emitted by 50% which will be a big factor in Europe where very strict standards are coming in.

    I was wondering if any one could comment on the news from the other day where Bombardier said they are looking at ‘A’ checks at 850 hrs and ‘C’ checks at 8500 hrs. Is this a big change from what 737s or A-320s have for their maintainance checks? Thanks in advance.

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