From kls Mon Jan 26 01:46:31 1998 Path: bounce-back Newsgroups: sci.aeronautics.airliners Date: 26 Jan 98 01:46:31 From: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM (Karl Swartz) Subject: Re: B757/B767/B777 Stearing system? References: Message-ID: Approved: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM Sender: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM Organization: Chicago Software Works, Menlo Park, California >Boeing kept the 707 prototype, the 367-80, until they donated it to the >Smithsonian. Boeing got it back and has it inside plant 2 on the west >side of Boeing Field. > >I think that when Boeing found out that the Smithsonian had this >aircraft sitting in a desert boneyard they were not very happy about it >and they wanted it back. I'm not 100% sure on that though... The 367-80 is still owned by the Smithsonian. They were storing it at Davis-Monthan AFB because they don't have room for it at the Air & Space Museum Annex at Dulles. Boeing and/or the Seattle Museum of Flight worked out a deal that got the Smithsonian to loan it to the SMoF; it's at Boeing for restoration. >I assume the prototype 737-100 was sold to Lufthansa with the rest of >them. Later on it was bought by NASA and is used for testing of all >kinds. It was not a prototype; it was a regular production aircraft intended for Lufthansa, as indicated by its 737-130 designation. (30 being the customer code for Lufthansa.) Unfortunately, they bent the fuselage during flight testing (I'm sure there's an interesting story there but I don't know it) and, despite it being perfectly airworthy, Lufthansa didn't want a bent plane. It was finally sold to NASA on July 26, 1973, over six years after it's first flight, then donated to the SMoF on September 20, 1997. It was stored at Moses Lake, pending completion of additional space at the SMoF. >The prototype 767 was sold to the U.S. Army which grafted a huge fairing >on the top of it to house some kind of laser...possibly the kind that >shoots down missiles(?) The project was for infra-red detection, not a laser, and was referred to by the acronym AOA. I've seen conflicting reports about whether or not is was sold to the Army. Several individuals who work for Boeing and who generally are trustworthy have posted that it was, but the Jet Airliners Production List says no. The FAA data as of December 1, 1997, lists it was being owned by Boeing Equipment Holding Company, but the registration date is November 6, 1996, which could mean it was bought back from the Army or perhaps was just transferred from one part of Boeing to another. >The 777 prototype is currently being refurbished at the Everett Boeing >plant for delivery to United Airlines(?). It's a production model built to the same specifications as United's planes, not a prototype, but I'm not aware of United having expressed any interest in it. United switched to buying the IGW model as soon as they could. It is being prepped for sale to an airline, but no buyer has yet stepped up to the plate. >Was that the prototype A320 that crashed at that airshow in 1980 >something? The first A320 was retained by Airbus Industrie; the one that crashed at Habsheim in 1988 was the 9th off the line. >I think a prototype A330 crashed in flight testing. The fifth A330 crashed during a test flight. It was the first to fly with PW4000 engines but it was not a prototype -- it was a production model intended for Malaysia Airlines. There don't appear to have been any A330 prototypes, which probably makes sense since it uses the same airframe as the A340. The first A330 was sold to Cathay Pacific. >I don't think the prototype A340 has crashed yet... I guess its days >are numbered. No A340s have crashed, though one was destroyed by fire while parked at CDG in Paris. (The circumstances have always seemed somewhat murky. Does anyone know the details?) The first three A340s were all retained by Airbus, though it appears that only the first was a prototype. I have no idea why they wouldn't have sold the other two. >I don't know about the A300s or A310s, but they're probably okay because >they don't have that computer controlled flight computer that can't be >disabled. I won't rise to the flight controls bait, and I sincerely hope nobody else will, either -- most of the group is pretty tired of that debate. In any case, the A300 prototype was retained by Airbus Industrie. Sometime after 1974, it was broken up, but parts of it were preserved at Le Bourget Field in Paris. The first A310 was a production model for Swissair. It now flies for Air Liberte under lease from ILFC. -- Karl Swartz |Home kls@chicago.com |Work kls@netapp.com |WWW http://www.chicago.com/~kls/ "The average dog is a nicer person than the average person." - Andrew A. Rooney