Jumbo Jet 50 Years In The Sky

[Stationair8]

Two part documentary on the Jumbo Jet, this Sunday night on SBS 0840PM.

[ghyde]

This is a repeat.

Was shown last year.

Good B747 doco

[Snakecharma]

With all the negative press about Boeing and the Max, I wonder if there is a coincidence in the repeat airing of a Boeing infomercial?

[TBM-Legend]

50 yr anniversaries only come by once Trousersnake!

[By George]

Look what McDonald Douglas did with the MD-11. Compare the DC-10 tailplane to the MD-11 and their 'SAS' fix. Made it a very interesting aeroplane in a bounced landing. Never forget taxing past that Mandarin Airlines one in HKG, upside down like a dead sparrow. Nobody is perfect in this business. The 747-400 comes close, except for the now considered high fuel burn.

[tdracer]

that all all said I would not be surprised if Lockheed, McDonald Douglas, Airbus, Embraer and bombardier have not all had their own version of the same issues.


Well, the L1011 put both Lockheed and Rolls into bankruptcy, McDac had the DC-10 cargo door and the MD-11 fiasco, the C-Series has basically put Bombardier out of the commercial aircraft business, and Airbus was years late and billions over budget on the A380.
By George, the 747-400 development was hugely problematic - first deliveries were six months late, dispatch reliability for the next six months was around 80%, and Boeing spent ~$2 billion fixing/retrofitting software problems after EIS.
Turns out building commercial aircraft is hard, actually making money at it is even harder...