What an airliner really looks like inside the fuselage

This is an Airbus A300. Similiar to the A320's which will be built in Mobile.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Airbus_A300_cross_section.jpg

ZVUGKTUBM wrote:

I once read that Airbus jets are vastly inferior to Boeing jets. This was during the USAF tanker debate/competition 3-4 years ago. There were letters to the editor in Aviation Week magazine from pilots who called Airbus jets "throwaway jets" compared to Boeing products.

Don't say that in Mobile. If you do it will be like spitting on the rebel flag. lol

My husband said the same thing about Airbus being inferior. If you've flown on an Airbus, did you notice that they rattle inside when flying?

nekochan wrote:

My husband said the same thing about Airbus being inferior. If you've flown on an Airbus, did you notice that they rattle inside when flying?

I flew on em from Charlotte to SF and back. And from Atlanta to Hawaii and back. I was just so glad not to have to be driving (especially to Hawaii) that I think my mind must have unconscientiously blanked out anything unpleasant about it including the rattling. lol

LOL, Bob. My husband doesn't think they are dangerous, he just thinks they are not as well made as the Boeings. And he questions whether their endurance will match Boeing aircraft, some of which have been flying for decades.

BobW wrote:

ZVUGKTUBM wrote:

I once read that Airbus jets are vastly inferior to Boeing jets. This was during the USAF tanker debate/competition 3-4 years ago. There were letters to the editor in Aviation Week magazine from pilots who called Airbus jets "throwaway jets" compared to Boeing products.

Don't say that in Mobile. If you do it will be like spitting on the rebel flag. lol

Whoa! That is a very sobering sight, sorta flimsy looking.

You should see how a submarine is made.. 2" thick HY-80 steel will get quite a bit smaller under a few hundred feet of water pressure..

The Airbus 320 has a safety record of, on average, one accident in every 14 million hours of flying.
Virtually tied with the Boeing 757.
And that's with 3604 320's in service and 973 757's.

http://www.fearofflying.com/resources/safest-airliners-and-airline-safety.shtml

So the bottom line is, your chances of dying in either is one helluva lot less than you're chances of dying in your car.

Jake92 wrote:

You should see how a submarine is made.. 2" thick HY-80 steel will get quite a bit smaller under a few hundred feet of water pressure..

With my claustrophobia, I get the willy-nillies just thinking about serving in a sub. I crawled into my ten-foot long diesel tank a bunch of times when I was repairing it and, early on, I would get nauseous.

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I rode in an Airbus (A-300, I think) to Rome and back and enjoyed my flights. I have an extremely long torso and usually my head has no support because airplane seat backs are so short. On the Airbus, seat backs were long and I had plenty of room to lay my head back on the seat.

Eric wrote:

Jake92 wrote:

You should see how a submarine is made.. 2" thick HY-80 steel will get quite a bit smaller under a few hundred feet of water pressure..

With my claustrophobia, I get the willy-nillies just thinking about serving in a sub. I crawled into my ten-foot long diesel tank a bunch of times when I was repairing it and, early on, I would get nauseous.

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I rode in an Airbus (A-300, I think) to Rome and back and enjoyed my flights. I have an extremely long torso and usually my head has no support because airplane seat backs are so short. On the Airbus, seat backs were long and I had plenty of room to lay my head back on the seat.

Yes, some while back when we were discussing the Airbuses here, I told you that all the Airbuses I've ever flown on have those tall seat backs that are so comfortable for you. Continental would be a good choice of airlines for you, EE.

I flew in them many, many times between here and Pensacola before I moved there, and at first those noises you all are referring to bothered me a little too. Then I did a little research then checked w/a few pilot friends of mine (one of whom works for the NTSB) and they all confirmed my little bit of research, that it was very minor mechanical noises that are of very little concern and that they are just as or more safe than most airplanes of that class that are in the air today.

Like Bob said above (I think), commercial flight is far more safe than driving or riding in a car.

Yes, flying is very safe. I tell that to my daughter every time she flies. She grew up flying but she's still a nervous passenger. I'm not afraid to fly but I hate the whole process of going to the airport, going through security, boarding the plane, waiting on it to take off, waiting to get off when it lands.....I would much rather hop in my car and drive to my destination if it is within a day's drive, even a long day's drive.

BobW wrote:

(Beluga Airbus photos)

While I agree with you that the Beluga is a really cool airplane, what are even more cool are the Antonovs... The Antonov 225 is the largest airplane in the world, and the rest of their cargo fleet ain't too far behind it. I used to rent them all the time (Antonov 124s, generally not the 225) to expedite bedplates and gearboxes from Europe and Brazil when the supply chain was a wreck and production was at peak levels. I used them so frequently back then that we actually tried to buy one at one point because it would have been more cost effective, as often as we rented them and as expensive as it is to do so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225

Usually I'd rent the entire plane and fill it up with my parts but on one occasion, my colleagues in gas were transporting a gas turbine to the states for some reason which I now forget and they offered me free space, which I jumped on. As you have to load the heaviest component/s toward the rear of the aircraft, my gearboxes were loaded first and the gas turbine was loaded last. Well, the gas turbine was a tight-fit and got stuck in the Antanov, so obviously they could not get my gearboxes out... as it turned out it would have been faster on that occasion for me to have just shipped them by steamship line. :/ I never shared space with my colleagues in gas again. lol.

Here's a neat video of a load process on a 124 of some heavy equipment headed to the Fukushima nuclear power plant to help in the rebuild process (description below):



April 8, 2011 - Los Angeles CA : Putzmeister America loads this 190,000 lbs / 70 meter concrete boom pump into the Antonov AH-124 cargo airplane in route to Japan Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to aid in cooling and rebuilding. Several of these machines are being flown by Putzmeister directly to Japan to expedite and assist in the crisis. Exclusive video from inside the plane! Concrete Equipment handles used equipment export sales for Putzmeister and was invited to be on location for this historic event.

I find the name amusing... Putzmeister. Taint a joke, is it Ricey?

That pumper needs a few more tires...

Yep that one's even cooler cause the whole front of the fuselage including the cockpit goes up in the air.
And thanks for sharing your experience with these things, rice. Really cool to read that.

Let's get in the time machine for a brief. from wiki...

When the Wright brothers made the world’s first sustained heavier-than-air flight, they laid the foundation for what would become a major transport industry. Their flight in 1903 was just 11 years before what is often defined as the world’s first airliner.[1] These airliners would change the world socially, economically, and politically in a way that had never been done before.[2]

followed by...

If an airliner is defined as a plane intended for carrying multiple passengers in commercial service, the Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets was the first official[citation needed] passenger aircraft. The Ilya Muromets was a luxurious aircraft with an isolated passenger saloon, wicker chairs, bedroom, lounge and a toilet. The aircraft also had heating and electrical lighting. The Ilya Muromets first flew on December 10, 1913

here's what it looked like.

BobW wrote:

Yep that one's even cooler cause the whole front of the fuselage including the cockpit goes up in the air.
And thanks for sharing your experience with these things, rice. Really cool to read that.

I agree Bob, Antonovs are totally badass... AMAZING airplanes! And you're welcome for sharing... always! You know me... I love to tell stories.

Take a look at that photo again. Each aircraft depicted in the illustration has two people on top of the fuselage between the wings.
I'm at a loss to understand why that is. What would those two people be doing up there?

Here's an actual photo of it. And again you see two people on top of the fuselage.

They are aiming or shooting guns........

Jake92 wrote:

They are aiming or shooting guns........

Man that takes cajones to be standing on top of a fuselage doing that. I wonder why they didn't just have them inside the fuselage and shooting out openings. I guess they didn't figure that one out till later. lol

In the 1940's and early 1950's my dad was a senior TWA captain of a Lockheed Constellation (Connie) during the golden era of Air Travel. He flew mostly transcontinental routes.

Multicourse meals, with cloth napkins and real silverware were served by "stewardesses"... man, he had the stories to tell. He flew Howard Hughes around (Hughes didn't trust just anybody). They took out all the seats of one plane and loaded the plane with as much gold as the plane would carry for one flight. During WWII, he helped search for Amelia Earhart...

As a kid I remember my Dad and I parking up to the fence at the airport to watch the airliners take off. And my first memories are seeing the Constellation, Eric.
Later on when I took my first flight it was on a Lockheed Electra.

Not strictly on topic, but aviation related nonetheless.

I was surfing youtube and happened onto a full HD upload of the movie Close Encounters. Got a screen capture of this scene for you.