
What happens to retired airliners? See a tear-down of a 747-400 - zhte415
http://aviationweek.com/blog/photos-what-happens-all-those-airliners-when-they-retire-see-tear-down-747-400
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mnw21cam
Kevin McCloud recently did a TV programme for channel 4 (UK), where they took
a retired Airbus A320 and recycled as much of it as possible into non-aircraft
related goods. I believe this was with the engines already removed.

[http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kevins-supersized-
salvage](http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kevins-supersized-salvage)

[http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/kevins-supersized-
salvage...](http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/kevins-supersized-salvage-
kevin-mccloud-3450695)

Even if the engines are too old to re-use, the high temperature nickel alloys
they contain are valuable for making new high temperature engine parts. There
is a real scarcity of that type of material.

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hamburg
Amazing that those winglets alone are worth GBP 400,000. It's just a few
layers of metal, no?

~~~
dm2
The link below says the fuel cost per hour for a 747-300 is ~$21,000.

[http://www.what2fly.com/operating_cost/boeing/747-300.php](http://www.what2fly.com/operating_cost/boeing/747-300.php)

The winglets save about 3 - 3.5+% fuel consumption. (from Boeing's website and
Wikipedia)

So it only takes roughly 2000 hours of flight time to recover the costs from a
used set of winglets ($650k each according to the article).

2000 flight hours is generally less than 2 years worth of flights for a normal
747-300. (Couldn't find a great source, didn't look too hard:
[http://www.airliners.net/aviation-
forums/general_aviation/re...](http://www.airliners.net/aviation-
forums/general_aviation/read.main/492074/) )

According to this they weight between 375 - 518 pounds and are ~6 feet tall,
which is significantly more than they look.
[http://www.b737.org.uk/winglets.htm](http://www.b737.org.uk/winglets.htm)

Edit: doubled the hours, thanks bhousel

~~~
gambiting
What I don't understand is, why would you order an aircraft without them in
the first place,if the saving is so big?

~~~
smackfu
Generally they would be older airframes where winglets weren't an option at
the time of manufacture.

Also, if you are running a lot of short flights, fuel costs may not be your
primary concern. For example, the 747-400D is a model meant for short domestic
routes like between Japanese islands, and doesn't have winglets.

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ChuckMcM
I guess that isn't too surprising but other than the avionics and engines
which seem relatively standard, I'm surprised that there is such a market for
the other stuff. Presumably its people keeping jets flying that need
replacement seats or that video screen from a specific version of in cabin
entertainment systems.

People buy high tech stuff and part it out as well, so company A will sell
their servers to the scrapman who will then resell hard drives, memory, CPUs,
and HBAs and then scrap the chassis. I cobbled together several VAXen that way
(buying 'disposed' ones and pulling enough parts to make a whole one).

