True Colors

The last plane you flew in was probably white, with maybe some decorative splashes of color and the carrier’s name. Most liveries use white as their base color. Why? They’ll tell you it’s because white looks clean, or sleek, or futuristic, or...

It’s about money, of course. Paint weighs. In the case of a 747, between 500 and 1,000 pounds. Different paint schemes weigh different. Red, with the most pigments, is the heaviest. (In general, darker or richer colors weigh more.) Every additional pound can cost the airline $100/year in jet fuel alone. 100+ pounds on 100+ planes that last for 10+ years becomes real money.

And that’s not the only way livery matters: when US Airways bought America West, they gained a hub in Phoenix. Like a goth kid in July, they realized that darker colors absorb more heat. The bigger (but just as bad) US Airways quickly adopted a lighter paint scheme.

(Oh, and my airline of choice? American Airlines uses a bare metal scheme. The lighter planes use less fuel, but there’s a trade-off: paint protects aircraft metal, so they require special and extensive anti-corrosive inspections.)

Perspective

The way to make Jet Engines more efficient is to make them wider. [This will be discussed in another post, that will be “before” the current post.] The first jet airliner (the 367-80) was powered by 4 engines, each with a diameter of 39 inches. Today’s 777 (a widebody) is powered by an engine with a diameter of 128 inches. That’s 10 times as much area. Those numbers may sound but, but they may also sound small, because they’re just numbers. To put it in perspective:

128 inches means a friend can stand on your shoulders and you can both fit inside a jet engine.

The 777 engine is only 11 inches narrower than a 737. Not the 737’s engine, the whole plane. You could fit 5 seats and an aisle across inside the 777 engine. (That’s why people who like planes prefer widebodies.)

Air Unworthiness Certificate

The Producers of the Blues Brothers had to apply to the FAA to certify a Ford Pinto. But unlike everything we’ve discussed, this was a Certificate of Air *UN*-worthiness.

To recap (and if you need more than a recap, stop reading this and go watch it), the Nazi Car (I’m telling you, you need to see this movie) falls off the top of a parking structure. It falls for 15 seconds, looking epic with the Sears Tower in the background.

But what if it didn’t fall? What if the Ford Pinto achieved in aerodynamics what it never could hope to in aesthetics? If it was too much like a wing, it would transmogrify from dead weight into a glider, and instead of smashing into concrete, it might hit a pedestrian, or worse, an expensive building.

Producers of the movie proved to the regulators’ satisfaction that a Ford Pinto would not, in fact, fly (a fact that was common knowledge among its drivers). Ford has never advertised that it is the only car that isn’t a plane, and can prove it.

Rejected Takeoff Test

What kind of test involves speeding a 1 million pound plane up to 190 miles per hour, stopping it as abruptly as possible, and having a fire engine sit for five minutes not putting out a fire? The Rejected Takeoff Test. And why?

Airplane manufacturers promise that their planes can be safely stopped without running off the runway as long as they are going below a speed known as “V1”. And what the manufacturer promises, the FAA tests.

This test is the absolute worst case. Plane fully loaded. Brakes worn down to their minimum. (The manufacturer has a tradeoff: require brakes to be replaced sooner and the test is easier, but your plane is more expensive to maintain.) No “thrust reversers” (they turn engines into giant power brakes, but if engines fail, they won’t work). The tires get so hot that specially-designed plugs blow out, deflating the tires so they don’t explode.

The brakes glow red. A fire engines meets the test plane at the end of the runway, ready to water down the brakes. But it waits for 5 minutes (to simulate the response time in an actual emergency). The plane fails if any component above the tires or brakes is harmed, either by fire (glowing red brakes have a tendency to ignite) or by structural failure (e.g., the landing gear collapsing).

The result is a spectacle so immense and expensive that the Mythbusters can only put it on their Christmas list. Go, take a minute, and watch.