4 ms·
As I understand it, 4 engine planes are less economical and are now unnecessary due to the reliability of 2 engine planes. I could see the last 747s serving as
by Traster 6y ago
As I understand it, 4 engine planes are less economical and are now unnecessary due to the reliability of 2 engine planes. I could see the last 747s serving as great monuments purchased by Billionaires to add to their collections. No 737 Max is going to give you a spiral staircase. I can't help but see this as a problem though, as we converge on a single type of aircraft it moves more and more to winner take all for the design.
- supernova87a 6y agoTwo main things as I understand it: 1) The variability of traffic leads to jumbos being underutilized, wasting fuel and capital tied up in such oversized planes, when it's better to have a 787 in use full time more consistently 2) Airlines got tired of having to maintain 4 engines when they could just have 2...
- bobthepanda 6y agoOther thing is that 787 and A320 can reliably fill up on "thinner" routes, which siphons off people who would otherwise change at a hub airport onto a jumbo, and filling jumbos was already tricky. There is a reason the largest operators of A380s and 747s are the ones with absolutely massive hubs; either a legacy European flag carrier, a Middle Eastern mega-hub airline, or an airline handling large amounts of transfer volume from an out-of-the-way place like Australia.