Aircraft deliveries

[diddy1234]

I was just wondering what happens (logisticly) when new aircraft are delivered to the customer.

I know that for a larger aircraft its quite easy as the crew would fly it straight to the customer (possibly with a couple of stops).

e.g. Boeing 747 will fly from boeings plant to BA at Heathrow in one go.

So what happens with smaller aircraft like private jets or little cessna aircraft ?

Would the pilot need to be 'experienced' to fly a little cessna 152 with various stops while flying from the USA to the UK to deliver ?

or is it cheaper to ship the aircraft (packed up without wings attached) by boat ?

Maybe its a stupid question, but I do wonder how certain aircraft are delivered.

secondly what happens to comercial aircraft at the end of life ?
I thought they were all broken up but i did see a video of an older Boeing 747 (BA) being retired to the 'Bone yard' in the USA .

[ihadcontrol]

I know smaller planes (like cessna's etc.) are flown by delivery pilots - dangerious work single's over large spaces of water.

My guess with smaller jet/turbo's is that they are flown empty (just fuel)and with a few stops on the way no where is out of reach.

[treadigraph]

Diddy, they use both methods for light aircraft. I'd suggest your Cessna 152 would need to be crated, while those with a bit more performance such as Mooneys are flown across usually by professional ferry pilots, via Greenland and Iceland (northern route) or the Azores (southern route). They may well need ferry tanks to have sufficient range. Twins and bizjets are all flown across I think. It does carry a risk and pilots are occasionally lost.

I heard of one Luscombe that was ferried as far as Narsarssuaq before weather defeated the plan, and the aircraft was shipped onwards. Luscombes and similar antiques arrived in droves three at a time in 40ft containers during the 1980s.

Somebody (Torquil Norman?) recently flew a Leopard Moth across to the USA, and some warbirds are flown across, such as the P-51D Miss Velma that arrived here last summer.

[CentreFix25]

Sometimes get Dash-8s passing through Newcastle, you can have a try at tracking their route via some of the photographic websites...

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled-(Air-Nippon/De-Havilland-Canada/0312034
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled-(Air-Nippon/De-Havilland-Canada/0311911
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled-(Air-Nippon/De-Havilland-Canada/0312776

[WHBM]

Most smaller aircraft are sold in overseas countries by dealers rather than direct by the manufacturer, and the dealer will have an established way of obtaining their aircraft. Piper and Cessna singles, and similar, will come by sea in multiple crates, they are designed in such a way they are straightforward to assemble on receipt.

The largest seaborne cargo I have seen was what Aeroflot did in the 1960s with their Ilyushin 14s (about a 40-seat prop aircraft) used to support the Soviet bases in the Antarctic, they were shipped to and fro each year as open deck cargo on freighters. I am guessing that the IL14s which Cubana had for many years went the same way. Once you break an aircraft down into fuselage, wings, etc it is reasonably straightforward to handle; railway locomotives are far heavier but still conveyed round the world the same way.