Issue 258: A Classic Departs

Perhaps fittingly, the aircraft was given a guard of honour via a water cannon salute by Sydney Airport’s ARFF brigade, before stopping to pose for photographs alongside the beach prior to takeoff. The aircraft then made a spirited takeoff from Runway 34L which included a farewell wing waggle, and ATC cleared it for a scenic departure to the east down Sydney Harbour at about 3000 feet before the aircraft made a noticeable zoom climb as it went ‘feet wet’ above Sydney Heads.

And with the retirement of the final Classic series 747, the departure also signalled the end for Qantas’s Flight Engineers, with the airline’s domestic and international airliner fleets now wholly comprised of two-person flight decks with systems that were once tended to by the third technical crew member now largely automated (see separate article on page XX).

Qantas Classics

No fewer than 67 747s have appeared on the Australian ‘VH’ register since the type entered service in 1969, including one -100 series, a 747-123 which was leased from Citicorp by Qantas and sub-leased to Air Pacific for about 18 months in 1988/89; 22 747-238Bs delivered to Qantas between July 1971 and December 1981; two 747-SPs delivered to Qantas in January and August 1981; the six 747-338s which are described in more detail below; and three former Singapore Airlines 747-312s operated by Ansett between 1994 and 1999.

The new generation 747-400s in Australia included the 21 Rolls-Royce powered 747-438s which were delivered to Qantas from 1989 to January 2000; a single GE powered 747-48E bought by Qantas from Asiana in May 1998; two GE powered 747-4H6s bought by Qantas from Malaysian in November 1998; two former Singapore Airlines 747-412s operated by Ansett from 1999 until the airline ceased operations in September 2001; a single 747-436 leased by Qantas from British Airways from November 2000 to March 2003; and six GE powered 747-438ERs delivered to Qantas between November 2002 and August 2003. Today, Qantas is the only operator of 747s in Australia, all of which are -400 series comprising the 21 747-438s, six -438ERs, and the three -48E/-4H6s.

Qantas’s 747-238B fleet, 17 of which were powered by P&W JT9D-7F and five by Rolls-Royce RB211-524B2s, started entering service with Qantas in September 1971, the first aircraft being VH-EBA. Most of the -238Bs were sold on to other airlines in the 1990s as the -438s entered service, but the final -238B in Qantas service, VH-EBS, was retired in December 2002 and was broken up for spares at Marana in 2003. Today, VH-EBQ can be observed on display at the Qantas Founder’s Museum at Longreach in central Queensland.

Qantas also operated two 747SPs. Standing for Special performance, the SPs were powered by the same RB211-524B2 engines but were 14 metres shorter than the -238Bs, and thus had better field performance due to their lighter weight. But with a similar fuel capacity, the SPs also provided the capability to fly across the Pacific non stop with a full payload. The SPs were withdrawn from service in late 2001 and early 2002, and ended their days in the scrap yard at Marana in 2002.

The six 747-338s, the main focus of our story, were ordered by Qantas in three batches. The first three aircraft were ordered from Boeing in November 1983, the next two in March 1985, and the final aircraft in August 1986. The six aircraft were accepted by the airline in November 1984 (VH-EBT, Boeing c/n 23222), January 1985 (VH-EBU, Boeing c/n 23223), April 1985 (VH-EBV, Boeing c/n 23224), March 1986 (VH-EBW, Boeing c/n 23408), November 1986 (VH-EBX, Boeing c/n 23688), and May 1987 (VH-EBY, Boeing c/n 23823).

“I joined Qantas in 1986 and I think we had four of the six 747-300s in service by that time,” Qantas engineering executive general manager, David Cox, told AA. “At this time there was a great deal of excitement in the company because we were coming out of the early 80s recession and things had been tough in the airline industry for a long time. We went out and bought these new aircraft which was a sign of regeneration for the company, and these later led into the 747-400 and the 767. So the 743 was really the start of a massive re-equipment program, and it was a very exciting time to be involved with aircraft evaluation and aircraft procurement, and that flowed through the whole company.”

The -300 series differed from the original -100 and -200 series in that the upper deck of the aircraft was stretched to accommodate additional passengers. Originally dubbed the 747 Extended Upper Deck (EUD), unfortunate byplays on the EUD tag led to it being quietly dropped from common use. In a generational sense, the -300 was much closer to the earlier series 747s than the later -400s. In their final Qantas configuration, the -338s were fitted with 52 business class seats on the upper deck and forward main deck, and 398 economy class seats on the rest of the main deck. The aircraft had a length of 70.4 metres, a wingspan of 59.64 metres, and a Maximum Take Off Weight (MTOW) of 377,842kg. The four RB211-524D4U engines produced 236.25kN (53,110lb) of thrust each, and published fuel capacity was 204,355 litres giving a range of 11,450km with a full payload of 55,340kg.

“The -300s still had the Flight Engineer’s panel and some of the older instrumentation, and it was a nice mix of automation and manual flying, so it still made you think a little bit,” Qantas’s general manager of 747 operations, Capt Peter Roberts told us. “For example, it didn’t have VNAV in it which meant your descents weren’t automated and were all worked out and managed by the pilot. About five years ago it was fitted with triple GPS and an FMS which made it a beautiful aircraft to fly – it was a really nice mix of the old and the new.”

The -300s were initially employed on international routes to Asia and Africa, with occasional trips to the US and Europe. But as the -400s entered service, the Classics were mostly operated on services to and from Japan, and in more recent years, they’ve been employed on domestic services between Sydney and Perth, and Melbourne and Perth, as well as occasional Perth to Singapore services, and sometimes on the Melbourne-Auckland-LA route before the first A380 arrived. “We used them also for Hajj flying on lease to Garuda,” said Capt Roberts, referring to the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia which lasts a couple of months. “We did a couple of years of that recently, we well as and a couple back in the 90s. We configured them with an all economy seating with 515 seats – we could load 515 pilgrims in about 15 minutes!”

Five of the -300s received upgrades to their original RB211-524Bs during their lives to take advantage of newer technologies developed for the 747-400. “The engines we ultimately had on the -300s were the RB211-524D4Us, and there were a number of upgrades we put through that fleet,” recalled David Cox. “While the last of the 743s was delivered with the final version of that upgrade, we flowed that back through the rest of the fleet during the early 1990s. The D4 had a number of upgrades through its life, but that was one of the things that attracted us to it originally because Rolls-Royce had this policy of regularly upgrading them.

“We then went to the -524G on the -400s, but these were originally known as the D4D, so it was a derivative, but at a certain point it had been upgraded so much it stood on its own feet. In the -400s, we’ve also upgraded the original -524Gs with newer Trent engine technology, so Rolls-Royce has continued to take the technology from newer engines and upgrade the older engines with it. On the 524G it improved the specific fuel consumption by a substantial amount but has also improved the time on wing substantially too.”

Upon the retirement of the final -238Bs in 2002, Qantas was left with just the six -338s from its original ‘Classic’ fleet, and this has meant the airline has had to be canny in drawing down that aircraft’s spares inventory whilst still maintaining aircraft availability. “The -300s were certainly a lot closer to the -200 than the -400,” explains David Cox. “That said, there were still many common parts. It’s interesting to reflect that we had a large fleet -200s and then we went down the -300 path as a bridge to the -400. Even though we took the last -300 in 1987 and the first just two years later, the -400 introduced a lot more electrical control and avionics control than the classic series, so the -300’s systems were much closer to the -200 than those of the -400.

“The good thing about the -300 was that we had already standardised with the -200 so we were pretty well equipped to support the aircraft. But that said, any aircraft that gets to the age the -300s were when we retired them has some unique challenges around it, like trying to find parts that may no longer be manufactured, and just generally the attention and time you have to put into the maintenance, managing the issues that develop with an aging airframe, like wiring, those sorts of things. They’re not insurmountable, but they just raise the bar a little.

“We don’t have any 744s that are quite the same age as the 743s, so it’s difficult we can’t compare apples with oranges. The -400 was the third generation of the 747 design – they knew all about the Section 41(forward fuselage structural fatigue) issues the earlier models had, so they designed in a more robust structure which has reduced maintenance man hours and inspection hours. Boeing incorporated the learning from the older models and, as we’ve handled both the Classics and the -400, there’s a very active ongoing process that looks at the airframe. Similarly on the engines, the engine life of the 524Gs has been substantially increased compared to the D4s, and we’ve also seen that consistently thru the life of the airframe. That said, they both age, but our expectation is that when the 744s get to the same age as the 743s were, they will be consuming less man hours or maintenance.”

“Any aircraft that gets to the age the -300s were when we retired them has some unique challenges around it.”

Two of the -300s were stored at Avalon for about 18 months to two years in 2003/05 due to over capacity in Qantas’s fleet, however they were re-activated when it became obvious the A380 was going to be delayed and additional capacity would be required to maintain operations until the aircraft could be replaced. “The -300s filled a very necessary role, especially with the A380 delays,” David Cox added.

“We were very lucky to have those aircraft we could extend for a few years, but we had to work hard to make it happen. During a period of high demand we were able to meet that demand without having to go and secure new aircraft, so they fulfilled a very good and necessary role within the fleet. But when you get down to a small sub-sleet, it’s always more challenging – if you need to substitute an aircraft for any reason it’s harder, and you carry more spares per hull than you would in a larger fleet, so from an operational and efficiency point of view it’s not ideal and you don’t want to do that for a long period.” One of the 743s, VH-EBU Nalanji Dreaming was placed in open storage at Avalon in 2005, and remains there to this day having had its engines and many of its parts removed for use on the rest of the fleet. EBU was struck off the Australian register in May last year, and whilst there have been rumours ranging from it being bound for the scrap heap to being turned into a gate guard at Avalon, it certainly won’t flying anywhere in its current condition and there are likely environmental issues to be dealt with before scrapping the aircraft. Either way, Qantas remains coy about what its eventual fate will be. “We’ve got a couple of ideas and we’re working through that, but I’ll have to leave it at that,” said David Cox.

In the meantime, the fate of many of EBU’s sisters also looks grim, with a downturn in the market linked to the global financial crisis meaning even Qantas’s usually highly regarded hand-me-downs are no longer in demand on the used market. VH-EBT was the first of the 743s to depart Australia, being sold to the unfortunately named Midair USA Inc and departing Australia in late 2007 for Rome Airport in New York where it reportedly remains in storage, while VH-EBX departed in early December 2008 and has been sold to Evergreen International which is based at Pinal Airpark.

The remaining three aircraft, -EBY, -EBW and -EBV departed Sydney on January 1, January 4 and January 14 respectively bound for open storage and probable scraping at Pinal, although they remain owned by Qantas and are believed to still be available for sale for at least the short to medium term. In total, the six 747-338s flew for more than 524,000 hours and more than 97,000 cycles, an average of more than 87,000 hours and 16,000 cycles each.

“At this point, there are three -300s sitting at Pinal Airpark and we’re negotiating with people on those,” said David Cox. “But what happens to them really depends on who buys them. They certainly have the potential to continue flying, but it really depends on whether someone sees value in putting life back into the airframes. The big issue here is what are the market conditions? They’ve had one careful owner and all are in pretty good order – I think former Qantas aircraft have traditionally demanded a premium in the market and have found homes ahead of other aircraft as a general rule, and I’ve personally been involved in many of our disposals where we’ve been complemented on the condition of our aircraft and on our records. But that said, the market is very tough, and people are parking aircraft left, right, and centre. If the opportunity was there I would expect Qantas aircraft would get preference, but whether the opportunity is there is the big question.”

But with plenty of younger and more capable 747-400s laid up in boneyards across the US southwest and in other parts of the world, it seems unlikely the -300s will find another airline customer.

Moving Forward

The end of the ‘Classic’ era has certainly brought about mixed feeling for longer serving Qantas crews and some of the more die hard enthusiasts alike.

“The main reason we didn’t stuck with the 743s longer was because we needed the -400’s range, so the whole design genesis of the -400 was to close gaps in the performance of the -300,” David Cox said. “Even though the -300 was as good as Boeing could do in 1984, by 1989 they were able to get a bit more range out of the 747, and the -400 gave us full payload on the LAX-SYD route which was what we really wanted. In fact, we were quite instrumental in defining the -400 based on our Classic experience – even the takeoff weight was designed around our requirement to do SYD-LAX which the Classics couldn’t do.

“Interestingly we did the same with the -400ER 10 years later; towards the end of the -400’s life we tweaked its capability again by lifting its MTOW, but maintained a substantial amount of commonality with the existing fleet, again to provide a bridge until we got the A380.

The main areas of change were areas like the landing gear to allow for the increased weight, increased strengthening in the wing and other parts of the structure like tyres and brakes, and the GE engines although we’ve got other aircraft so that wasn’t such a big challenge. It was mainly those things which were weight affected. For everything else we tried very hard to keep standard so the crews could operate it and the maintainers work on it without too much training.

“Apart from a couple of years on 767s, I’ve been on Classics since 1978,” said Capt Roberts. “One of the really good things about the classic was the camaraderie of the crew, having the Flight Engineer there with the two pilots as a minimum, so you’ve always got a nice mix of personnel on the flight deck and interaction was much more so than on a modern aircraft. It made it a nice atmosphere to work in and, certainly, the good times on the ground were always memorable because we had a great group of people there. And towards the end with the Classic, everyone knew each other. There was a small group of crew, pilots and engineers, it was a bit like a big flying club – it had a really nice feel to it. That said, I’m looking forward to the challenge of the -400 and enjoying the change in technology.”