Reply to post: Re: Dual engine 747? Not really. But what's available pre-owned?

Re: Dual engine 747? Not really. But what's available pre-owned?

I can answer that one AC. Whilst it might seem like the new 747's look the same as the old, they really arent, there have been continuing improvements over the years, everthing from winglets, improved avionics and flight control systems, to better engines. The Efficiency of the new747's would be probably more then double that of the old ones. So sure you could grab out one of the old ones, but the costs of getting it up to modern Standards and implementing all the process improvements would cost a packet. Plus there would be the decreased life compared to a new one - the fatigue life of an aircraft is the biggest driver in this, and even one sitting in the middle of a desert, fatigue life is going to suffer a decrease in this just from the wings moving in the wind. In the end, it just makes sense to buy new and avoid all the hassles and potential problems.

For an exmaple of this, you can look at the Royal Australian Navy Super Seasprites, for this they grabbed the airframes from mothballed Seasprites from Mojave and planned to upgrade them to make them into the new package. After blowing a $1 Billion, the Project was eventually cancelled as they had so many problems bringing the old frames up to modern standards it was a complete waste of time and money.