QF 747-300 to have winglets
 

heard from a mate at work yesterday that the classics will be fitted with winglets pretty soon.

although the aircraft are busy now replacing some of the a330 perth-singapore sectors, the first 743 has been scheduled in for the maintenance during october.

it will be interesting seeing the 'classic' sporting a more modern winglet. it might be more difficult to tell it apart from the 400 now, all they'll have to do is change the engines and they'll fool everyone!!! (oh yeah, and blue loos)

IF they were to have them, they would be like the 738 style not the 744.

I know Aviation Partners Boeing were looking at other models to retrofit the winglets to, and have just got them installed on some 757's, I am not aware of any STC for retrofit to the 743 at this stage.

Sounds like a bit of a wind up.

:hmm:

More like a wing up!

They'd have to change the wing root as well jet-base.

If this rumour is true then the supplier must be offering them at a very low price as there isn't enough life left in the fleet for fuel savings to offset the normally high cost of fitment. Any fuel savings would enable QF to sell more seats on the SYD-BOM sector which currently is payload limited (over 100 seats blocked off from commercial sale).

The winglet manufacturer may be offering QF a very good deal to act as a "market leader" in the hope of convincing other Classic B747 operators to fit them. :ok:

With the cost of fuel, i'd be surprised if the bean counters will throw any more cash at these dinosaurs.
Once they figure out how and what they are going to buy as the long term replacement, they are history.

Then again, maybe if they do spend the money on the winglets, murphy's law will engage and they will quickly be replaced.

Bring on the 777!

maybe they need a tax break to help dissapate the squillions they have been making of late...

Better off spending it on the fleet and getting better resale, or sub leasing potential than giving it to Howard so he can spend it on the pollies christmas windup...

747 "classics" or 737 "classics"?, I know they were evaluating winglets for the 737's sometime ago.

Considering that the latest deliveries of 738's (vya-) nearly didn't come with the winglets (credit here goes to....bean counters), I find it difficult to imagine that the 734's, that are about to go also, would be retrofitted.

Come on guys, yep they look horny, but do you really think that boffins are going to spend there bonus on this????

hmm
 

Before they spend any more cash on these things, they better work out how to hide the $100million spent on the upgrade.......

Mind you Peter Gregg thinks it is easy to hide it!:E