I agree. Newer and more fuel efficient engines on twin jets will certainly make the operators reconsider the continued operation of four engine airplanes (B747, A340 and A380). Airbus never made a profit on the A380. They convinced airlines that had future orders planned to convert their orders to the A330 and A350 as they couldn’t sell the A380 for the current price to produce. That allowed them to shut down the line in 2021. Unfortunately, as you may have seen in the news, the newer more efficient engines on some of the airplanes are having significant challenges with quality control and reliability which will cause significant strain on the industry for the next few years. It would be interesting to see if the A380 could be converted to a freighter for stuff that the AN-225 used to transport.
Since this is a public forum I won't specifically name the company, but "slap & whip me" aircraft's biggest enemy is itself. Too big to get out of their own way is how some describe it. Between bottlenecks in manufacturing, assembly, supply chain issues, a quality control structure where very few people take ownership of anything, managers that are constantly trying to climb the ladder (without ever bothering to invest themselves in their current positions) it's amazing they're still plugging along. The bulk of the profit is made on spare parts from what I've been told...
had to go to TF Green for work on a Saturday, brought my son along and showed him downtown Providence on the way back. how many people know there's a piano factory in Haverhill? I didn't until a few years ago. These are considered the equal of a stienway, possibly better. layers of birch wood glued together to form the piano body. one of the original piano molds used when the company started a newer mold that functions a bit easier. Piano bodies in the drying room, it's hot and humid, and takes about a month. framework strings and harp, it has tons of force on it that metal thing is their patented tension device tuning the action of the hammers, the felt is hand shaped here for consistency in action. The action is actually composite, not wood, for better performance under rigorous playing. In another step there's a man who softens or harderns the felt hammers to give each piano a richer or sharper voice. Each gets tuned about 25 times before the showroom. trying out the fancy finished piano they made for a big show. 9 foot concert grand Tours are on Wednesday, $20/person. It's definitely worth it.
skating the bike lane over the Whittier bridge, happened to catch this gaggle of dories from Lowell's boat shop. It's interesting knowing the history of some of these boats, who built them and where they've been. I used to row dories from Ring's Island in high school and beyond, and I love this river. interesting truck I caught on the highway. Apparently an old Japanese fire engine Quonset point airport, where you can watch ships slide past the runways did my father's memorial and graveside service. range time, one had never fired a gun, one never fired a pistol, finally cured my daughter of her flinch with the 9mm Hampton sand castle competition
Did the girls like playing the pianos? Did you order one for each of them? Thanks for taking us along, again.
it's been a struggle and my wife did all the heavy lifting, but my firewood buddy finally graduated high school! She homeschooled him the whole way, and he struggles with school like I did, but he made it. then a miracle happened and I won the maverick lottery at ford! Meet my new wheels, a 2023 XLT hybrid Maverick. It's the most expensive vehicle I've ever bought and it's the least expensive new truck you can buy. of course you can't have a new truck without buying accessories. I already had bought a few before my truck was delivered. A tonneau cover because I carry tools and want them out of sight. smartliner custom fit floor mats. and a couple shots at work my wife's grandmother left $5k for each of her great grandchildren to buy their first car at age 18. My son is very pleased to get his first truck, my old frontier. We had to put so much money into his sister's old car that he didn't owe us anything, even though it's lost almost no value with all the milage I've added to it since I bought it. added vent visors cool replica sailing ship in Newburyport Harbor I bought the 400 watt built in inverter option, here it's powering an aircraft. The hybrid system only ran the engine a few seconds every couple minutes to power it. added a bug deflector, immediately afterwards my wife drove her new truck ( it's actually in her name) to PA and back in one day to deal with issues there. The bug deflector kept the bugs off the hood and Lower windshield, and the truck got 41 MPG for the whole trip.
They loved playing the pianos, my wife gives them lessons, unfortunately those pianos are crazy expensive. I could buy four new mavericks for the price of one smaller one
went along on a test flight over salem and Essex on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. My daughter was home from college and brought some friends along, took them to see old north church and the USS constitution in Boston, then up to Maine to see Portland head light and the nubble light, of course they went swimming afterwards. My two youngest daughters asked to be baptized, talk about a happy day!
this is what makes the hybrid worth the wait, this is my normal commute, way better than 19 mpg in the frontier. I originally wanted blue, but am very happy with the red. cool shot of a cirrus vision jet I caught at Logan Airport. driving up to my favorite place to visit, theAdirondacks. This is the top of Middlebury gap, the mountains ahead are the Adirondacks. fully loaded for a week of camp meeting, towing a stack of kayaks, the truck never struggled in tow haul mode, even going over bethel mountain road. Got my worst MPG ever 25 MPG. free trailers are free for a reason, found out the next morning that the hub could slide off the spindle without removing the nut! The bearings entirely disintegrated... up before dawn so I headed to the lake. Spent some time talking with the creator with this view. my father is the one who bought a Canoe for our family when my sister and I were tiny. We enjoyed many family trips in that old boat. When I was older and struggling in school, he took me paddling and fishing many Saturday mornings. When I was in high school and joined a rowing club, he joined as well to row with me sometimes, and to drive me and the boats to races. One time we won a race together against another father and son team. Years later when I was creating my foam kayaks, he was my biggest motivation, since he couldn't lift his plastic kayaks anymore, and he was also my biggest sounding board for how to test them to prove they were safe. His kayak was the third one I built, and after he couldn't Paddle anymore because of his health, he gave it back to me. I was paddling his kayak this overcast morning, when I caught this amazing sunrise. carrying a 12 foot kayak in a 4.5 foot bed. I was the youth leader, my hardest job was actually planning the games, the devotionals were much easier.
The 380 will not have the same kind of internal cargo capacity or load size capability because of the deck that supports the second floor seats limits interior height. The ability to take huge cargo into the aircraft is also limited to whatever sized door could be fit into the side of the aircraft, as the cockpit is on the lower deck, instead of the upper like a 747. This limits the length of the cargo. 747 freighters often have a nose door for loading long cargo. There has been some study on what could be done to modify them but the fact that the aircraft is also limited to 60 some airports with runways and taxiways wide enough to land at worldwide means it's not going to happen unless someone besides Airbus puts up the money.
The 380 got a reprieve due to the surge in flying after covid. Since Airbus and Boeing cannot meet the demand for new aircraft. Other than Emerates, there really isn't much demand for them, and if the recession deepens and flying drops off, the reprieve will be over in a year or two for the majority of the fleet.
Thanks for the insight. I got to see the AN-225 once in person, it was amazing. It is my understanding that they would take that aircraft to any runway that could support it, as long as they had the time and space to o load/offload the cargo. Certainly easier to work with cargo than it is passengers. I imagine that with the amount of money that Airbus already lost building the 380, they wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to fund a conversion but would happily do the work if someone else was paying. Your pics are great!!!! Keep ‘em coming!!
As usual, I enjoyed your photo trip you take us on. A couple of questions; the float plane N388TA what was it? It sure looks like it could hold a few passengers. Love the airport view with the sailboat in the background and airplanes in the foreground. Same lift technology, just different uses. What was the airplane you test flew? Or the one you had the truck hooked up to? the old sailing ships certainly had a different silhouette than that newer navy cruiser.
Some of that with the 225 was the landing gear. It has a whole Forrest of wheels to support it on possibly even gravel. The 380 requires reinforced concrete of a particular strength, because landing gear and wheels are heavy, so they only put enough to land safely. The C5 has a similar gravel capability, not that it's ever been used very often if ever.
The float plane is a cessna caravan, they seat 10 in the US, and in some countries 14. That's the same design I worked on at my old job with the FedEx logo on it. They're a workhorse designed for bush flying, you'll find them everywhere in the world, especially remote locations, cessna has a 5 year wait list if you want to buy one. The test flight was in a cessna 172, the same aircraft I was powering with my truck. A basic 4 seat trainer, that is also found almost everywhere and almost every pilot flew in one during training at some point. The Casin Young is a WWII destroyer, they were lightweight lightly armed escort ships, designed for speed over almost anything else. They were mostly for patrol and intercept work, especially against submarines, they also served as antiaircraft gun batteries around fleets of transports and larger navy ships. Many rescued downed pilots from the ocean and did all kinds of dangerous work. The Young was also built at the Charleston navy yard for WWII, one of hundreds built there. The kilroy was here came from this shipyard as well, it was used by a yard inspector to mark how far he had inspected the welds or rivets in the hull during the last shift. Workers got paid by how many they did during the last shift, and they could scuff out the last mark and get paid extra unless the inpector made a mark hard to scuff out. Sailors saw these kilroy was here marks all over their ships and began sprawling it everywhere they'd been. The constitution was built there for the war of 1812. Over 100 years between the two, and many changes in technology. I wonder which one had more firepower, but the Young probably wins in range of the guns.
No one is certain when the British Chad cartoon/caricature was added to the Kilroy signature and checkmark - most likely bored servicemen - and the Kilroy family wants it properly known that this complete graphic did NOT originate in the shipyard and NOT by anyone in the Kilroy family. “Kilroy Was Here”-A Story from World War II
I thought it might have been. I did my training in a Cessna 150 and then we bought a Cessna 150, sold it for a Beechcraft Musketeer. Sold that to build a house. Got back into flying with a Cherokee 140 which was sold to purchase a Beechcraft Sundowner. The Sundowner was the favourite but it was sold to finish building the house we are now in.
