You Load Sixteen Tons, Whaddya Get? Tim Clark, the Ghost of Johnnie Johnson, and the A380
Air Transport World is quoting Tim Clark, el Presidente of Emirates, as saying that the six tons of weight on the A380 he's been worrying about the last few years are still there and not likely to succumb to Slimfast, Nutrisystem, TrimSpa, or anything else that da Festung is throwing at it.
Now. As we here have mentioned on numerous occasions, there are persistent reports of weight problems on the A380 that have not, as yet, seen a resolution in the form of getting the weight under control or raising the operating limits. For a while, the full extent of it was in the realm of rampant speculation as no hard scale figures were forthcoming from the Toulouse folks. We did a thumbnail sketch and some sample loadings based on Airbus published information and we weren't thrilled either.
However. Speculation changed to better informed opinion as a result of the Airbus Grand Imperial Joyride for the media that occurred last month. There, we got some actual numbers on something closely resembling a production aircraft with a lotta seats in it and it is not cause for rejoicing. A little bit of interpolation tells the tale. We reported that here, and it is a story we've been following for a while now.
Whatever. Cassandra I'm not. The numbers are there and I don't like them much. See for yourself. Grab your AC43-13-1 or your CAM18 if you have one, get your pocket calculator and a copy of the type certificate data sheet. Do the math, as they say.
UPDATE: One of my correspondents has correctly pointed out that Tim Clark is el Presidente of Emirates. Changes have been made. The offenders have been chastised.
posted by Robert Luedeman semi retired attorney and amp mechanic @ 10:03 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Isn't Tim Clark president of Emirates, not Etihad? Love your blog.
You are correct. I have corrected the entry.
In other news, perhaps I should explain who Johnnie Johnson was.
Back when I was a weights engineer at Garrett Johnnie Johnson was a crew chief who sometimes had the responsibility for getting Jetstars ready for weighing. They were usually in a parlous state with mucho fol de rol before we could get anything resembling an honest weight out of his crew. "Galley? Who needs that? We'll just throw in a couple milk crates full of empty bottles. That ought to do it." "Disposable load? What's that? CG? Who cares?"
Those are typical Johnsonisms.
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