Special delivery

Making up the numbers; 2 leased 707s, 2 used and 5 leased 737s.

And there are more to be delivered with another 17 737-800s on order and the new 737MAX sparking interest at Qantas.

The celebration of the 175th delivery afforded Australian Aviation the opportunity to examine the complex delivery process while flashing back to the halcyon days of travel with an overnight stop in Hawaii and a fuelling stop at Nandi on route to Sydney.

For Qantas, explains the airline’s Technical Pilot 737 Mark Hughes, the delivery process starts about eight weeks before the aircraft is delivered with the initial build in Wichita, Kansas at Spirit Aerosystems.

Qantas and KLM are the only airlines that conduct the exhaustive step by step inspection process.

“It is a joint initiative between engineering and flight operations,” explains Capt Hughes.

“It starts at Spirit [formerly Boeing Wichita] and we inspect the aircraft on a daily basis before it’s railed to Renton.”

Incredible history

Renton started out as a Department of the Navy factory for the production of The Boeing PBB Sea Ranger but this was cancelled to make way for the B-29 Superfortress. Boeing built 1119 B-29s at Renton during WW11 and the plant was closed at the end of the war.

However production of the C-97 saw the plant re-opened in 1948 and Boeing built 943 of the Stratofreighter. Then in May 1954 the Boeing 367-80 was rolled out from the Renton facility and was the forerunner of the manufacturers’ dominance of the commercial airline business.

The KC-135 Stratotanker followed in 1956 and the first Boeing 707 on October 28, 1957 and production would continue through to April 1994. All told Boeing would build 1009 Boeing 707s.
Boeing 727s (1,872) and 757s (1,050) would follow.

Production of the 737 started in 1966 and the first delivered –a -100 – to Lufthansa in December 1967 and entered service the next month. The prototype 737-300 classic, the 1,001st 737 built, first flew on 24 February 1984.

Production of the classics ceased in 1999 with the delivery to Air New Zealand of four 737-300s, which had been cancelled by Garuda Indonesia. The 737 New Generation was initiated in 1991 and launched on November 17, 1993.

First NG to roll out was a -700, on December 8, 1996. This aircraft, the 2,843rd 737 built, first flew on February 9, 1997. The prototype -800 rolled out on June 30, 1997 and first flew on July 31, 1997.

Boeing has sold 9134 737s of all models as of September 26, 2011 and delivered 6919 as at the 29th of September 2011.

Qantas’s love affair with Boeing began on September 6 1956 when after rejecting the Comet and Britannia it ordered seven Boeing 707-138s powered by Pratt & Whitney JT3C engines worth $28 million.

It took delivery of its first Boeing aircraft a 707-138 on June 26, 1959 and had seven by September of that year. Its last 707 was delivered on September 25, 1968.

Like Qantas, Trans Australian Airlines also came under massive pressure to buy British –in this case the Trident – but turned to Boeing for the 727 in November 1962 with an order for four for delivery two years later.

TAA called its 727s Whispering T-Jets, referring to the reduced noise level inside thanks to the rear-mounted engines. The aircraft were an instant hit with the public. It is interesting to note that such was the standardization of the two domestic airlines under the two airline policy that the first 727s left the Seattle factory together and arrived in Melbourne at the same time.

Two years later, TAA joined with Ansett-ANA and ordered six Douglas DC-9-30s to replace its DC-6Bs and Viscounts. The first of what would eventually be a fleet of 12 aircraft arrived in 1967.
TAA ordered the 727-200 in December 1970 after turning down DC-10s and the Lockheed Tristar.

The first arrived late in 1972 and 12 would enter the fleet.

Boeing 737s were ordered in June 1985 by a renamed Australian Airlines with an initial commitment to 12 -300 models with the first arriving on the 25 July 1986.

All told 15 -300s and 18 -400s were ordered by Australian before its merger with Qantas.

Qantas ordered three more -400s in the late 1990s.

The airline’s commitment for 15 737-800s was placed on November 9the 2001 in response to the collapse of Ansett and the airline was able to get quick slots due to deferment by alliance partner American Airlines when US traffic collapsed after 911.

The order followed an intense battle with Airbus with its A320 and led to the now famous nose-to nose face off at Sydney airport in October 2001.

Qantas conducted a top-to-bottom, side-by-side comparison of the two models, including test flights and the walk through in Sydney of the United A320 and Polynesian Airlines 737-800.
A key factor was Boeing’s ability to get the first aircraft into service within 100 days according Boeing’s VP Australian and Pacific Island sales Rick Westmoreland.

“For the Qantas win, the discriminator was our ability to manufacture, modify and place into revenue service the first of 15 airplanes within 100 days,” Mr Westmoreland said at the time. “The competition simply couldn’t do that. It was a tremendous effort by everyone on our team to make this happen.”

The Boeing solution delivered not only aircraft but operational capability.

The first part involved reengineering and modifying in-production 737-800s previously earmarked for American Airlines and the second, within the same 100 days, was to provision spares and train flight and maintenance crews to support the introduction into the Qantas fleet—a process that usually takes about two years.

The first aircraft was delivered on January 14, 2002 and the initial 737 was rapidly followed by the balance of 14 by end of July.

As part of the deal, Qantas exercised options for 23 over the next five years before ordering another 31 on December 17, 2007.

Since 2001 Boeing has been able to reduce the fuel burn on the 737-800 by 6 per cent through a combination of winglets, aerodynamics tweaks and engine upgrades.

The build

Once Qantas’s 737s arrive at Renton the airline has two inspectors in place for virtually 24/7 checking of all major tasks. “We have pagers and as each major task is completed we examine the work.”

Capt Hughes says that the inspectors do pick up little things and the production line mechanics either fix it or Boeing issues a warranty of the particular variance. The inspection part process is also part of what is required to get the aircraft onto the airline’s AOC. “It’s a legal requirement to get it on the register.” The Qantas staff is CASA delegates and are later joined by a CASA inspector for the last week of the signoff. This process is completed for every Qantas delivery, while for first of type the process is more complex.

Boeing has two 737 lines with one producing 21 a month while the second is at 11 a month which is being ramped up to 21 by 2014. Once the Qantas 737 is rolled out, flight tests can be launched after initial ground tests. The first flight- dubbed B1 – is conducted by two Boeing function test pilots with engineers in the cabin. Once this is completed with the aircraft being flown over to Boeing Field adjacent to Seattle Tacoma airport a more comprehensive flight test inspection is conducted by Qantas. “It starts with testing everything we can on the ground,” says Captain Hughes.
“Then it is back to Boeing of there are any problems.”

Once any issues are ironed another test flight is launched with a Qantas functional pilot and a Boeing pilot and one systems operator on the flight deck. In the cabin are Boeing cabin specialists and Qantas engineers. “We find things from time to time, mostly minor cabin items but once the radar didn’t work.” “After we are satisfied the aircraft gets its FAA ticket and funds are transferred in New York.”

The Qantas 737-800s are built to the highest technical specification with HUDs, RNP and GPS landing capability. But the work isn’t over yet as Captain Hughes and his team need to load on Qantas specific software. “For instance the RNP database,” says Captain Hughes. “It takes about a day.” And it’s quite a few days since Captain Hughes joined Qantas in 1994 from flying Cessna 210s in the Northern Territory.

Armed with a mechanical engineering degree Captain Hughes was soon a technical pilot on the Boeing 767, test flying them out of heavy maintenance. In all 13 years were spent on the workhorse of the Qantas fleet and then 18 months on the 747-400. Captain Hughes has spent three years on the 737 – most of that time as technical pilot.

Sky Interior

A day before lift-off to Australia there is an opportunity to examine Boeing’s new Sky Interior which is an extraordinary mix of ergonomics, lighting, 787 architecture plus a big dollop of psychology to dramatically change the interior feel of the 737. And to the mix are increased height and new 787 styled luggage bins to further enhance the feel of space. Qantas first 737 fitted with the Sky Interior is the next one to be delivered after ours.

The use of the blue LED lightning in the ceiling is as fascinating and it is deceptive. The radical architectural change to the interior makes a significant difference to the sense of space but add the blue sky lighting and you are in a different world. Boeing passenger satisfaction regional director Colleen Kottlowski says the “ceiling is about giving the passengers the feeling of sky overhead.”
“First of all to connect passenger back to the flying experience and second to make the plane feel a little bit more spacious. Humans are so used to feeling a sky overhead that when we give you one, you tend to think about it not even being there and that causes the ceiling to feel a little bit taller.”

The 737s window surrounds have also been redesigned in an oval shape to blends with the new interior and they also look bigger. A big plus for Australians – the world’s second tallest travellers – is the overhead bins are not overhead any more – at least for the passengers in the aisle seat and centre seat. Boeing has re-arranged the ceiling spaces moving systems and cables to either side to allow for the new interior and thus the new pivoting bins while being larger are further to the side and far less intrusive.

According to Qantas group executive of operations Lyell Strambi the bins are also safer.

“With the old bin design, things slide around in flight and when you open the bin they tend to pop out,” Mr Strambi said. “These bins are designed to prevent that happening, so when you open the door your baggage is going to be in the position you actually had it in.” The seating is also getting some extra treatment with Marc Newson-designed leather business class seats in a claret colour and full international IFE for every seat in the aircraft. Mr Strambi said that Qantas will use the Sky Interior 737s on longer transcontinental flights and trans-Tasman flights.
Virgin Australia has already introduced the Sky Interior but Qantas general manager of customer experience Alison Webster said a key difference between the two airlines was the IFE system.
“Our 737-800s have the Panasonic IFE system and I think that is a significant differential for Qantas,” Ms Webster said.

Delivery flight

A leisurely limo pickup at our hotel at 8am is almost a throwback to the romantic days of air travel and the Boeing delivery “terminal” adds to the feeling that this is going to be a trip to remember as does a casual breakfast in the waiting room while chatting to the handful of fellow travellers. Boeing’s Rick Westmorland officiates in the formal handover of the 737-800 to Mr Strambi before the passengers experience the friendliest yet thorough security checks anyone can recall. At a few seconds before 11am Captain Hughes eases the throttles forward and the 737 is away on the 5.37 hour leg to Honolulu.

Captain Hughes is joined on the flight deck by Captain Paul Stevens and First Officer Oliver. Our 737 took off to the south and a few right hands turns had us tracking over the spectacular Olympic Mountains. Once the seat-belt sign is off, our personal Customer Service Managers Kate Gregory and Michelle Heuer swing into action with Boeing supplied catering plus a few extras they picked up in Seattle. Our flight is in daylight because it is Qantas policy explains Captain Hughes, whenever possible not to fly new aircraft at night.

Another safety touch but it also affords a better view of the incredible vastness of the Pacific Ocean. Mr Strambi juggles lunch in “economy” with interviews with media, while the two engineers Alex Sawras and Lee Wilson seem to be continually engaged monitor systems in the cabin. According to Mr Strambi the 17 737-800s yet to be delivered will replace the remaining 16 737-400s by the end of 2013. However there are considerations underway for using some of the 737-400s for Fly-in / Fly-Out operations in Western Australia and Queensland according to some sources.
Mr Strambi also notes that there is “great interest” at Qantas in the 737MAX which is seen as a “natural” 737-800 replacement at the end of the decade.

The flight is effortless and we touch down at 1.37pm local time to a typical Lei greeting with another luxury limo waiting to whisk us away from the 737s stairs. The Qantas policy if not flying at night is starting to have some significant benefits with an overnight stop in the tourist Mecca and of course is reminiscent of the halcyon days of the flying boats where every night was a stopover.
But the stop also afford more time to chat with the flight crew and get both details of the delivery process and a sense of the sights we are going to see on the next leg.

Captain Hughes tells us that we expect to be flying over Gardner Island which is suspected of being where Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan landed and died after failing to find Howland Island during the final stages of their ill-fated around the world flight. We will also fly past the touchdown sites for Apollo 8 and 11. Take off on Friday is 9am local time and flight QF6024 on time with a forecast from the flight deck of a great day’s flying. Flight time is 6.30 minutes which will have us in Nandi at 2.30pm local time Saturday.

Amelia Earhart

Gardner Island is magnificent yet haunting from 37,000ft and one cannot help reflect on what might have happened in 1937. For the record Gardner Island is now called Nikumaroro and is part of the Phoenix Islands, in the Republic of Kiribati and is approximately 6 km long by less than 2 km wide. Ms Earhart and Mr Noonan took off from Lae at midnight on July 2, 1937 in their twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10E for the 4,113km journey to Howland island. They last known position report was near the Nukumanu Islands, 1300kms from Lae. Searches were launched by the Itasca a 76m US Coast Guard Cutter stationed at Howland Island as a radio communications platform for Earhart’s flight but these were made to the north and west.

A week after the disappearance the search had widened to include Gardner Island, 560km southeast of Howland Island and one report spoke of evidence of recent habitation but no-one could be seen from the air. The problem was that no-one had inhabited the island for 40 years – something that was not understood at the time. The Gardner Island hypothesis is being led by The International Group for Historical Aircraft Recovery which has made several expeditions to the island and plans another for July 2012 the 75th anniversary of the disappearance.

TIGHAR says that having failed to find Howland Island, Ms Earhart and Mr Noonan continued on the navigational line Earhart said they were following. “That line led them to uninhabited Gardner Island where Amelia landed the Electra safely on the island’s fringing reef,” TIGHAR claims. In several places the fringing reef is dry at low tide and also smooth enough to land a plane.
TIGHAR says that for the next few nights they used the aircraft’s radio to send distress calls. Government, commercial and private radio operators around the Pacific and in the U.S. reported hearing the distress calls says TIGHAR. Radio bearings taken on the signals crossed in the vicinity of Gardner Island. Of six bearings taken by Pan American Airways Radio Direction Finding stations on Oahu, Midway, and Wake Island, the four strongest cross near Gardner Island. A seventh bearing taken by the Coast Guard also passes near Gardner.

However by the time searches flew over Gardner Island the distress calls had finished and rising tides had swept the Electra over the reef edge. TIGHAR says that “one of the last credible distress calls mentioned rising water.” It adds that “the aircraft appears to have been washed seaward and become hung up in the surf zone at the reef edge. A photo of the area taken by a British expedition three months later shows an unidentified object on the reef edge. Later residents of the island told of aircraft wreckage in that location.”

Apparently 18 months after Earhart disappeared, the island was settled by a few dozen Pacific islanders under British colonial administration but the colony was shut down in 1963 due to a severe drought. However, TIGHAR claims that “archaeological work in the abandoned village shows that the residents had access to aircraft wreckage which they cut up and used for local purposes. Some of the recovered aluminium and Plexiglas is consistent with Earhart’s Lockheed Electra.”

In 1940, three years after Earhart disappeared, a British Colonial Service officer found the partial skeleton of a castaway on a remote part of the island. He also found a campfire a box that had once contained a sextant. The bones were subsequently lost, but computerized re-evaluation of the bone measurements by forensic anthropologists claims TIGHAR show that the skeleton was probably that of a white female of northern European descent who stood roughly Earhart’s height.

TIGHAR has found a site on the island that fits the description of where the castaway’s remains were found in 1940. Archaeological excavations by the group in 2001, 2007 and 2010 also found and recovered physical evidence suggesting residence by an American woman of the 1930s including several artefacts of the same type as items known to have been carried by Earhart.

Nandi

Gardner Island and its secrets pass behind us as lunch beckons. CSMs Ms Gregory and Customer Service Manager Ms Heuer have again whipped up a culinary masterpiece with a little help from Qantas catering in Honolulu.

Nandi has been part of the Qantas network for decades in varying roles as both a refuelling stop and a destination in itself. The leg between Nandi and Honolulu was critical for Qantas with the early jets performance which prompted Boeing to build the short -138 variant for Qantas. On the 7th of September 1959 Qantas lunched its Southern Cross route which left Sydney at 1600 and arrived at Nandi at 2150. Departure was at 2330 and arrival in Honolulu was at 0805. The flight left for San Francisco at 1000 with arrival at 1750.

The one-way fare to San Francisco was $500 and the average weekly earnings was around $40 a week. While exact comparisons are difficult our 737-800 burns only 40% of the fuel of the early 707-138s but carries roughly the same number of passengers in a similar configuration. We have a one-stop in Nandi for the final 5 hour leg to Sydney. ATC keeps us low after departure and thus opportunity for our pilots, come tour guides, to once again give us some spectacular views of the islands and reefs off Nandi.

But Sydney and reality beckon as our brand new 737-800 flies into the setting sun.

Touchdown is 5.10pm as scheduled.