Fuel and Paint
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 23
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From: London
Fuel and Paint
Was looking at this pic
Its a cargo aircraft so no doubt flying full laden a lot of the time. Has the paint been stripped to save on weight and fuel costs? If so what typical saving per flight are likely to be achieved?
Its a cargo aircraft so no doubt flying full laden a lot of the time. Has the paint been stripped to save on weight and fuel costs? If so what typical saving per flight are likely to be achieved?
Joined: Oct 2002
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 8,208
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From: London UK
American Airlines have never painted their aircraft since metal fuselages came along in the 1930s, apart from the A300 which requires a special coating. It does save weight, cost, and the downtime when repainting, there seems to be a bit of extra maintenance in return. A few others (as here) do the same. It seems to be sufficiently minor that it's down to the corporate identity whether to go for it or not.
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 342
Likes: 1
From: right here
it takes (roughly) 100kg to paint a 737
and
roughly 10kg fuel to carry an extra 100kg weight on a 4 hour flight
or maybe 2,5kg each hour for the paint.
these numbers/calculation will not stand a proper scientific crosscheck, but i think they give some idea....
and
roughly 10kg fuel to carry an extra 100kg weight on a 4 hour flight
or maybe 2,5kg each hour for the paint.
these numbers/calculation will not stand a proper scientific crosscheck, but i think they give some idea....
Joined: Dec 1998
Posts: 3,038
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From: .
This one is a BCF, so I presume CX stripped the paint from the previous user and just didn't bother painting fully
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 187
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From: Standing at P37
Is that the weight of solids remaining after application or the weight of paint with solvents and carrier?
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 10
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From: Indianapolis, IN USA
American Airlines have never painted their aircraft since metal fuselages came along in the 1930s, apart from the A300 which requires a special coating. It does save weight, cost, and the downtime when repainting, there seems to be a bit of extra maintenance in return. A few others (as here) do the same. It seems to be sufficiently minor that it's down to the corporate identity whether to go for it or not.
AA uses a special polish that is made for them from a shop in Georgia. I had to cal this shop to find out what I could use to strip the polish off when I was the project manager on a couple DC-9's they sold. The shop would not tell me the chemical make up but did tell me what would cut the polish. So the man-hours spent keeping the aircraft polished does hurt on the return of investment of not carrying the extra weight.
Solids remaining after. I understand all aircraft are accurately weighed both before and after a paint job...
Not always...there are mathematical methods that can be utilized to determine the new weight. Depending on the paint scheme, the old paint thickness is measured...usually 4 to 8ml thick. Then the new paint thickness is measured and mathematically the weight is found and the difference is add to, or subtracted to the Basic Weight of the aircraft.
Regards,
Greg
AA uses a special polish that is made for them from a shop in Georgia. I had to cal this shop to find out what I could use to strip the polish off when I was the project manager on a couple DC-9's they sold. The shop would not tell me the chemical make up but did tell me what would cut the polish. So the man-hours spent keeping the aircraft polished does hurt on the return of investment of not carrying the extra weight.
Solids remaining after. I understand all aircraft are accurately weighed both before and after a paint job...
Not always...there are mathematical methods that can be utilized to determine the new weight. Depending on the paint scheme, the old paint thickness is measured...usually 4 to 8ml thick. Then the new paint thickness is measured and mathematically the weight is found and the difference is add to, or subtracted to the Basic Weight of the aircraft.
Regards,
Greg
