What are the uses for an old Boeing 747 aeroplane?
BBC News - What are the uses for an old Boeing 747 aeroplane? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18833070)

Tom Wrigglesworth and Rob Bell visit the UK's largest plane salvage centre in the Cotswolds, to discover what happens to a Boeing 747 when it reaches the end of its working life. They see how valuable parts are stripped for resale before the carcass is torn apart, to be recycled into bicycle frames and fizzy drink cans.

And the full programme is at:

Jumbo Jet Strip-Down
BBC Two - Engineering Giants, Jumbo Jet Strip-Down (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01l1w71)

Episode 1 of 3

Duration: 1 hour

Engineer turned comedian Tom Wrigglesworth and Rob Bell, rising star of mechanical engineering, climb on board Victor X-ray, a 200 ton, £200,000,000 Boeing 747.

This jumbo jet has flown over 36 million miles in its 14 year life with British Airways. Now it will be broken into tens of thousands of parts in the airline's maintenance hangar in Cardiff, before being painstakingly reassembled and certified fit to fly again. This is the first time this complex process has ever been filmed and it provides fascinating insights into just how a 747 works.

Rob and Tom also visit the UK's largest plane salvage centre in the Cotswolds to discover what happens to a 747 when it reaches the end of its working life, and discover how valuable parts are stripped for resale before the carcass is torn apart to be recycled

Truly awesome footage of what you can do to a B747-400 with a JCB!

Couldn't see a reg for the one being scrapped.

Probably one of the ex-AF three(?) scrapped there recently I believe.

BBC - Boeing 747 lands at Cotswold Airport to be recycled (http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/gloucestershire/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8845000/8845258.stm)

A rather unfortunate choice of title for this thread..not to mention irony.

Here's one they did earlier so to speak.

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/dft_avsafety_pdf_500540.pdf

3 posts and we have not yet had an Airbus vs Boeing argument.

.....why is it that the Beeb seems to think it is not possible to make a programme without a bl&&*y comedian as part of the presenting team, eg "engineer turned comedian Tom Wrigglesworth". They are everywhere.

There was one on the Volcano live programme last week as well. Why? He didn't seem to do anything that was either amusing or enlightening. All the good gen came from the academics.

In this case it may work; I shall wait and watch it.

The Ancient Mariner

Phew! I needed that.

They did something remarkably similar on C5 about a year ago.

Same applies to another recent Beeb documentary discussed, the subject of which I forget.

.....why is it that the Beeb seems to think it is not possible to make a programme without a bl&&*y comedian as part of the presenting team

They have to consider the intelligence, attention span, and capacity for more than shallow thought of their audience.

3 posts and we have not yet had an Airbus vs Boeing argument. Wonderful observation, but what's your point? If you want to start one go ahead and launch the first salvo.

:hmm: Anybody else watch this last night ?

The plus side:

For the general public, a reasonable overview of engineering. The presenters, in the main, let the programme speak for itself ( which makes a change ). Some easy to understand technical information presented for the benefit of non tech people.

The downside:

A classic piece of BA PR. Very sanitised, everything was perfect and of course the inclusion of pilots and CC ( we know what ovens and urns are for) the only surprise being no mention of customer services and sales and marketing.

Nothing at all about the difficult bit, as in putting it all back together, and the final departure scene..."faithful engineers" watching the departure into the sunset..:yuk:

Some of the engineers would clearly have been lost in a Line environment at 00silly hrs.but were very capable at trotting out the PR lines.

Overall, reasonable, but nothing special.

" They have to consider the intelligence, attention span, and capacity for more than shallow thought of their audience"

The programme was 1hr duration, with no commercial breaks and did contain technical information. Consequently, when allied to your criteria above, it's not unreasonable to assume it will not be exported in the original form.... for broadcasting on the US networks. :E

I found it ok, it was not over technical but then not is their audience.

But I'd love to see the out-takes. :E

Started watching it on iPlayer last night and the thing that caught my attention most was that everyone was wearing safety specs, at all times, everywhere.

Good to see BA people doing what they're told to do for a change.

I thought it was quite interesting, but a little too neat & tidy, if you
know what I mean.

I enjoyed it but thought that they concentrated too much on taking it to bits and we didn't see much of them putting it back together.

pretty unrealistic. No foul mouthed tirades about recalcitrant bolts,no loud hammering noises,no engineers stoicly bleeding after the removal of aforementioned recalcitrant bolt. not much in the way of tea/coffee being drunk. I mean come on what kind of hangar has all of those things missing?

WOT, no flight test before taking the punters off to S. America??? :eek:

Presumably the air test would be done on the way back to Heathrow.