Fly Airbus

......and avoid American engineering!



Just joking of course, this was nothing to do with the plane, rather a heavy handed pilot who might want to consider a career as a truck driver instead

If you can tear your eyes away from the tail, look at how the middle of the fuselage creases as well. It was very lucky that the thing held together like it did.

[edit on 5-5-2007 by waynos]

That was actually a test as part of the DC-9 certification - the body was strengthened and the tail design changed as a result.

This is why aircraft have the most stringent certification programs of all transport types.

Also a reason why both Boeing and Airbuses test pilot positions are very sought after - you get to do thing with aircraft someone else has paid a lot of money for you would *never* be able to do otherwise

Funny because the Dc-9 family is still used en-masse.

Nice video.

Heres a funny landing:

I found a pick of Airbus's new ultra top secret A390...

Man is it UGLY!




First post in months btw...Twins will do that.

Originally posted by skippytjc

First post in months btw...Twins will do that.

Holy I wondered where you had gone skippy! Congrates! Thats awesome news hope things are going well.

Also greatlakes that video is from a beer commercial and was CGI. Some sort of soccer add for beer with the away team on that plane.

[edit on 22/08/06 by Canada_EH]

lol nice video
where have you been skippy?

If you took the time too read his post you would of seen that he has been busy raising not one kid but two. My sister in-law did that not more then 2 years ago and it wasn't easy. Lots of help from fam when ever she could get it.

[edit on 22/08/06 by Canada_EH]

Funny that you say that as the world record for a DC9 was close to 100000 hours for a Hawaiian DC9. Early A320's are already being scrapped..... (Not that that has anything todo with what country they come from).

Originally posted by PisTonZOR
Funny that you say that as the world record for a DC9 was close to 100000 hours for a Hawaiian DC9. Early A320's are already being scrapped..... (Not that that has anything todo with what country they come from).

Just incase you are not being sarcastic.


Those aircraft are being scrapped for load cycle reasons. Being short haul, they go through far more (de)-pressurisation and loading/unloading (of the load paths) cycles than a long hauler like the -9.

Thus the airframe wears much much quicker. Its a case of retire them, or have another Aloha disaster.


Its the exact same for the Boeing 737s, Bombardier and Embraers of this world.

A DC-9 is not a long hauler. Actually it was one of the first "regional jets"

Douglas Aircraft were often built like tanks. In 2004. I was flying a 1943 DC-4.

My mistake, I'm thinking of the DC-10 (incidentally, probably the worst passenger aircraft for reliability).


Anyway, its life will be defined by its pressurisation cycles, that is the bottom line.

I'd be pretty shocked if a regional jet has anything like half the in-flight hours before retirement compared to a long hauler... never mind hold the actual airframe record.

Hawaii has some of the worst wear and tear on airframes in the world. The fact that that Hawaiian DC-9 made as many hours as it did is amazing. The longest flight they make is 45 minutes, and 3/4ths of them are 20 or less. Hawaiian and Aloha combine have roughly 10-12 flights to the Big Island from Oahu, which is the 45 minute flight. They have a couple that go from the Big Island to Maui, which is like 10-15, and the majority go from Oahu to Maui and Kauai which is about 20 minutes.

I flew on that airplane many times. It was an MD-80 actually, but pretty much the same thing. I'll try to find just how many hours it had at retirement.

[edit on 5/17/2007 by Zaphod58]

Considering it was one of those flights that blew its top due to a failure in the structure due to the number of pressureization I would be carefull if I operated a fleet in the area. For me its wondering do they build planes with too few pressurizations in mind or is Hawaii just to insane and should they consider other options?

That was Aloha. Hawaii is just really difficult to have any other options. They're trying to get a ferry service up and running, but the Big Island is so far away it would be hard to run. And there are huge areas that are restricted for boats because they're Humpback Whale sanctuaries. They get hundreds of whales and calves there every year because the waters are protected. Planes really are the best bet for them, just with the corrosion, and the cycles they put on them, it's hard on maintenance. Hawaiian Airlines just transitioned to 717s and 767-300ERs in the last 5 years or so. Aloha was looking at other options (they fly 737-200s with a hybrid 700 to go to the mainland) but they hadn't found anything yet.