How do smaller aircraft end up at their new foreign home?

[Lew747]

Wherever you travel worldwide, you always see different aircraft from different manufacturers. But how do they end up at their respective base/hub thousands of miles from where they are built?

I know large long haul jets are taken from their factories to their new homes but what about smaller aircraft? (Small jets like a 737 or A320, or even smaller turboprobs or SEP aircraft). Do they fly too? Just by taking many refuelling stops? Or are smaller A/C shipped by road/train/ship etc, then re-assembled?


Just curious!

Lewis :ok:

[CharlieJuliet]

Many years ago took a Jetstream 41 to Hong Kong for the GFS. First day night stop Nice. Second day refuel Iraklion (Crete) night stop Luxor (Egypt). Next day to Seeb (Oman) and night stop. Onwards to Chennai (India) for a night stop and then on to U tapao (Thailand) to night stop. Last leg to Hong Kong. 6 days flying at around 5 hours per day. It was great fun. I am sure that all aircraft movements to far flung places folllow a similar ferry sequence.

[stansted_dan]

Our Cessna Mustangs came from Indepence via Buffalo, Goose Bay, Narsarsuaq, Rejklavik and Prestwick. A pretty fun week for the pilots!

[emeritus]

In the late 50,s and 60,s I worked for a Cessna agency in Australia. Nearly all were sent out by sea in crates after being assembled and test flown at the factory in Wichita, Kansas.
Nowadays some are being ferried from the US to Aus via the Pacific but every now and then" one falls into the water"

With the airlines their a/c were ferried after taking delivery at the Factory. When range was a problem they were usually fitted with extra bladder tanks in the cabin.

Emeritus:ok:

[parabellum]

I was sitting on the ground at Tarawa, Central Pacific, on a turn around in 1978 when about twenty light singles joined downwind in a loose formation and landed, they were being ferried from the USA to Australia.

[TCX69]

As an example, TRIP's recently delivered ATR-72 was ferried Toulouse (France)-Arrecife (Spain)-Francisco Mendes (Cape Verde)-Recife (Brazil)-Belo Horizonte (Brazil). So a long old journey but got there in the end!

[kookabat]

Inside one of the Rex Saab 340B+ aircraft...

Photos: Saab 340B/Plus Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net/photo/REX---Regional/Saab-340B-Plus/1238180/L/)

[Dr Jekyll]

A few years back when the Imperial War Museum tracked down a B29 in the Nevada desert, they were advised that the simplest way to get it to Duxford was to get it into flying condition and ferry it. Even though it would never fly again once in Duxford this was still easier than dismantling and reassembling.

[philbky]

"A few years back" was actually March 1980. You may be interested in the following:
B-29 44-61748 Hawg Wild (http://www.twinbeech.com/B-29HawgWild.htm)

I saw the aircraft en route in the air over N W England - the first time I'd seen a B-29 flying since the 1950s.

[aviatordom]

I think that aircraft such as the 737 stop-over to refuel at Rejklavik, in Iceland (excuse my spelling!) or in Shannon, Ireland, before then heading off to their new home.

As for new Airbus's, it's probably the same story. They fly from Tolouse or Hamburg and then go on to Shannon, Rejklavik or Prestwick in Scotland before flying off to their new owners.

Hope this helps,

aviatordom

[racedo]

BBC NEWS | Americas | Pilots survive night on ice floe (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7773046.stm)

Night on Ice floes for the crew and they really are lucky.

Shipping from US to Sweden.

Can remember quite a few small planes crashing off coast of Ireland over the years.

[Semu]

If you are exceptionally curious, look up Blue Spruce routes. They are a set of routes that are within terrestrial navigation aid range (sort of) across the North Atlantic. They are not used much anymore what with GPS, but I believe they still see some use on ferry flights. They would be my first choice on in a light aircraft. They were set up during WWII.

[N707ZS]

Take a look at VH-JET#1 & Her Sisters - VH-XBA - The Flight Home (http://www.707.adastron.com/flyhome/diary-3.htm)
that's how you get an old bird back home.

[AKAFresh]

In my company no one volunteered to bring the new A/C across the pond!!... hence why the manufacturer got the short straw.

Mind you on the other fleet almost every pilot wanted to bring the new shiny jets over! Lucky *%&$£! :}

[RVF750]

Bombardier's pilots ferry a new Q400 over to Exeter every two weeks right now, and it's a shame because there'd be a few volunteers if we could do it ourselves.......

[AKAFresh]

Dash&Thump,

"it's a shame because there'd be a few volunteers if we could do it ourselves":eek:

Maybe young free single FOs but not many captains iv spoken to who have a wife and kid will be up for a Dash 8 North Atlantic ferry... now if you had nice sheep skin seats and heated seats (ahhh think SAS) might push a few captains over to sign up. :)

Ps... Dash&Thump if you volunteer and ever get do it your a better man than me! :ok:

AkA.

[barit1]

1979 - a new LH 747 arrived HAM on ferry from Everett with a couple boats, and one or two disassembled Cessna SE, in the cargo hold.

[WHBM]

Broadly speaking single engined types (eg Cessna/Piper) are somewhat designed to be dismantled, crated, and shipped by surface. Once you are onto twins, they can be flown pretty much anywhere.

Various exceptions of course. In the 1960s the Soviet Antarctic bases had Ilyushin 14s for hops between them. Now the Il-14 is a twin prop piston airliner, about 40 seats (think Convair 440). Each year they were dismantled at Riga and shipped out as deck cargo by Soviet sea freighter down to the Antarctic and put together there, then at the end of the season brought back again for overhaul. The fuselage was on deck and the two wings were lashed alongside. There's a photo of this in a Russian history book about the Il-14.

Do bear in mind that all the USAF bombers in WW2 in Europe were ferried across from the US, when that was real pioneering, and unfortunately quite a number were lost along the way. A fascinating description of this whole operation is in the book "Croissants at Croydon", by Jack Bamford, Air France UK Gen Mgr in the 1930s (and post-war) who set up and ran the transatlantic ferry organisation for the RAF.

[Davidsoffice]

It does bring to light which manufacturers handle the delivery flight and therefore the handover of the aircraft is at the customer's base. Some handover at the factory and therefore it's up to the customer to do the transit flight. From my earlier days I recall, probably incorrectly, that the 748s were delivered by Avro (HS) pilots whilst 146s were flown by the customer's pilots.