Ballast now there is something You want to avoid in a new aircraft!
They gave us iPads and tossed out the navbag of 8kg, that is how allergic to carrying any extra weight the MoneyMen are. Now we have no paper charts WHATSOEVER, smart.!
Anyway , TD didnt some MacDc staff go to Embraer and continue the tailmounted engine saga?
So as I understand it , a tailmounted engine a/c is potentially a more efficient a/c but more challenging design wise. Ie more expensive.
And we all have seen the effect off lack of deice and all sorts of stuff being flung into the engines.
As I have already stated: The 737 born the same year as me is the ultimate Beetle and with the new wing on the 700 and 800 ( I think that is when the present one came) and the new engines, the basic 737 is going to carry on from 1967 to 2067!
Did the DC9 ever have that sort of potential? Me thinks not!
I find it absolutely fascinating that Aviation have become the Sick Old Man of technological development.
When Hitler was so proud of the WW Beetle that Herr Porche presented in 1935 , he sure as dirt did not expect it to end its days ,slightly modified in the 1990s from a Mexican factory!!
Thinking of that, I would not mind having WW Beetle , ca 1969.
At least I can fix the engine if needed, and fantastic on snow.
Aero dynamic and tailmounted engine.
Anyway, got to pull the net!