Scrapping retired jets
Discussion
Most of the things on the aircraft have an ultimate life. landing gear, engine turbine disc's or pressure bulkheads etc. These are the things that when a cycle or hourly limit is reached that will 'kill' an aircraft. Then you'd part the aircraft out. You'd either remove them serviceable or send them straight off to overhaul. Its almost never just smashed up. Only the parts with no value are left in.
Theres an entire industry built around in, here in the UK! Kemble is good to go and see the poor old 747's etc in various states. Was at bournemouth airport recently and there are a few old fighter jets laying about!!
Theres an entire industry built around in, here in the UK! Kemble is good to go and see the poor old 747's etc in various states. Was at bournemouth airport recently and there are a few old fighter jets laying about!!
pablo said:
IanMorewood said:
Most retired aircraft find themselves being used for instructional purposes for a while before being robbed for spares. Eventually the bare skeleton will end up crushed and recycled.
would you take your driving test in car thats failed its MoT?Aircraft are retired when they become "uneconomical to repair" either due to costly systems failure, an airframe at it's life limit, or for military stuff, because the avionic upgrade costs is more than a new one costs!
With regards to retired RAF a/c they will often go to either Cosford or Cranwell for use as Ground Instructional Airframes, the former for Airman/Airwomen training the latter for Officer training. Currently both Cosford and Cranwell have a number of Jaguars filling this role.
Sadly the aircraft later generally end up on Station fire dumps or at Manston for Fire Crew training.
Sadly the aircraft later generally end up on Station fire dumps or at Manston for Fire Crew training.
Ginetta G15 Girl said:
Sadly the aircraft later generally end up on Station fire dumps or at Manston for Fire Crew training.
Not that often any more as it's seen as slightly unenvironmental and too uncontrolled in terms of training. Most airfields now have one of those fancy multi-type fire simulator thingies.....pablo said:
IanMorewood said:
Most retired aircraft find themselves being used for instructional purposes for a while before being robbed for spares. Eventually the bare skeleton will end up crushed and recycled.
would you take your driving test in car thats failed its MoT?More to operating an aircraft than just Biggles going up tiddley up up.
Sorry I'm in the flight training domain so to me the term instructional defaults up an image of a pilot, an instructor and a two seater used for training, I thought the comment was implying that "retired" jets are somehow no longer used for operations but acceptable for flight training, hence the tetchy comment! of course, knackered old stuff is used for repair practice and ground based training. (some would argue that knackered old stuff is still used for flight training too....) We get more requests for gate guardians and museum pieces than instructional aircraft now though...
Technically there is no such thing as a "retired" aircraft, its a pile of ex life items that may never have even flown in that configuration, mainplanes are swapped between fuselages etc fairly regularly to maximise component life.... but y'all knew that!
Technically there is no such thing as a "retired" aircraft, its a pile of ex life items that may never have even flown in that configuration, mainplanes are swapped between fuselages etc fairly regularly to maximise component life.... but y'all knew that!
Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 16th September 19:13
Ginetta G15 Girl said:
With regards to retired RAF a/c they will often go to either Cosford or Cranwell for use as Ground Instructional Airframes, the former for Airman/Airwomen training the latter for Officer training. Currently both Cosford and Cranwell have a number of Jaguars filling this role.
Sadly the aircraft later generally end up on Station fire dumps or at Manston for Fire Crew training.
I still have nightmares of having my top half stuck in a rear fuel cell in the Jag. Never been so high in my life! Sadly the aircraft later generally end up on Station fire dumps or at Manston for Fire Crew training.
Also massively disappointed when our only live ground run was cancelled because the mighty Adour didnt have enough get up and go to actually sustain itself...
pablo said:
IanMorewood said:
Most retired aircraft find themselves being used for instructional purposes for a while before being robbed for spares. Eventually the bare skeleton will end up crushed and recycled.
would you take your driving test in car thats failed its MoT?Regarding the jets they aren't flown in the training schools although you could see them still taxing, the concept is that the airmen and officers get to practice anything from fault diagnosis (symptoms as described by the instructor) to replacing hot engines or patching holes shot into airframes.
Bisonhead said:
I still have nightmares of having my top half stuck in a rear fuel cell in the Jag. Never been so high in my life!
Also massively disappointed when our only live ground run was cancelled because the mighty Adour didnt have enough get up and go to actually sustain itself...
Mine is the attempts at undoing bolts/screws/fasteners that have been undone and tightened up/crossthreaded a 1000 times before I got my grubby mitts on them. It's paid off now I'm rather adept at removing knackered fasterners on stuff offshore.Also massively disappointed when our only live ground run was cancelled because the mighty Adour didnt have enough get up and go to actually sustain itself...
Crossflow Kid said:
Ginetta G15 Girl said:
Sadly the aircraft later generally end up on Station fire dumps or at Manston for Fire Crew training.
Not that often any more as it's seen as slightly unenvironmental and too uncontrolled in terms of training. Most airfields now have one of those fancy multi-type fire simulator thingies.....The Tornado F3 fleet went through the "Reduce to Produce" process, where they were stripped for parts to be used on the GR4 force.
I am not sure how successful this was though, there are only a small number of F3s that avoided being scrapped.
Re. aircraft used by fire sections, I think Manston (RAF) and Predannack (RN) are the only bases now with former airframes used for fire training.
Go back about 20 years and pretty much every base used to have a couple of aircraft on their fire section.
I am not sure how successful this was though, there are only a small number of F3s that avoided being scrapped.
Re. aircraft used by fire sections, I think Manston (RAF) and Predannack (RN) are the only bases now with former airframes used for fire training.
Go back about 20 years and pretty much every base used to have a couple of aircraft on their fire section.
Max_Torque said:
Aircraft are retired when they become "uneconomical to repair" either due to costly systems failure, an airframe at it's life limit, or for military stuff, because the avionic upgrade costs is more than a new one costs!
...except when the aircraft concerned is a Nimrod, in which case you blow millions of pounds of taxpayers' money on new wings, avionics etc. and then chop them up for scrap before any of them ever flies again Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff