Another China Southern story which predates this one by several years. it was the early 1990's and air travel in China was even more interesting than it is now. First class was for foreigners and coach was for the locals. First had assigned seating but coach was first come first serve. There was a fist fight on the concourse while we were loading and even after every seat was filled about ten people would not get off of the plane. So, standing in the aisles we took off and headed up to Shenyang, SRO.
How much does a coat of paint weigh on a 737? I don't know, but it is surprisingly heavy.
Flying a polished aluminum airliner (no paint) would save a bunch in fuel (or increase your u$eful load) over the life of the airliner. Polishing costs would more or less be offset by no painting costs.
-Skip
It varies, which is why you don't see more airliners with AA-style livery. The prevailing wisdom is that it's slightly cheaper to operate a painted airplane than a polished one. And some operators turn the airplanes into billboards to generate additional revenue.How much does a coat of paint weigh on a 737? I don't know, but it is surprisingly heavy.
Flying a polished aluminum airliner (no paint) would save a bunch in fuel (or increase your u$eful load) over the life of the airliner. Polishing costs would more or less be offset by no painting costs.
-Skip
That is one of the reason why AA does not paint their planes. And it is also the reason that the space shuttle external fuel tank is orange. Orange was the undercoat, they saved a bunch of weight by not painting it white.
600 pounds by not painting it white. The first few were painted, none since. That's 600 pounds that you can put in orbit instead.
Well...NASA saved 600 pounds by not painting the Spaces Shuttle's external fuel tank after the first two flights.How much does a coat of paint weigh on a 737? I don't know, but it is surprisingly heavy.
STS-3 was the first unpainted one. Just the first two were white. I remember thinking how ugly the orange tank was. After seeing those two glistening white orbiters all assembled it just looked half done. But we got used to it.
I don't get it. How does flushing take fuel? Due to pumps etc. using electricity which comes from the generator on the engines?
I remember watching the first launch on TV (worked for Martin Marietta at the time, we built the external tank). Was amazed at how that thing leaped off the pad when the SRBs were lit. Nothing like a Saturn V.
Asked some of the old hands what a drag race between the shuttle and a Saturn V might look like. The consensus was that the shuttle would take an early lead, then the Saturn V would catch it, pass it and never look back. It sustained a higher acceleration rate once it got going. Fun image.
The simple act doesn't use much energy. However the aircraft has to carry around the blue fluid to make the flush happen. Some weenie has figured out that each flush takes X pounds of fluid and it costs Y yen to carry a pound. So, if you don't have to carry as much blue fluid around... Isn't it simply amazing what they teach in Business School these days?
Of course *my* airliner saves a ton on blue fluid costs <g>.
Regards,
Joe
Titan 34D's
Another fine product from Martin Marietta's plant south of Denver. I visited that assembly line on my interview trip. Never had a reason to go there the 4 years I worked there. Too busy on other things.
Frankly, I am pleased when they keep the blue fluid IN the box....I wasn't thinking far enough outside the box to think that they'd reduce the amount of fluid they carry based on asking passengers to hold it.
In later years I was working on large space based laser optics and we put a facility at that plant called the 'Rapid Retargetting, Precision Pointing' test bed or as me and another guy named it in the contracts, R2P2, much to the chagrin of Lt. Gern Abramson, head of SDI. If you watcth an old episode of Nova I am in the audience as Gen. Abramson says "Here were are at our new facilility name just a little too close to that movie we are trying to not be associated with"
Did you ever get in to see that? It was a seismically isolated building with a 20'x20'x30' chuck of concrete glued to a very large piece of bedrock
Long after my time there, I'm sure. Oct 79 to Oct 83. I like the facility name. I hung out in SSB North when they opened it.