Boeing 737 and the British Gov.

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TexasGuy
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Boeing 737 and the British Gov.

Post by TexasGuy »

Just heard on CNN the Tony Blair has ordered a Boeing 737 to be the official plane for the British Prime Minister. The plane will be delivered i think by the end of the year.
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Mavke
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re:

Post by Mavke »

Hi,

Should be a privat company who wil operate the plane for the the UK governement : most likely G-OBBJ as usual

Mavke

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TexasGuy
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Re: re:

Post by TexasGuy »

Mavke wrote:Hi,

Should be a privat company who wil operate the plane for the the UK governement : most likely G-OBBJ as usual

Mavke
Thanks for the info. Was reported that the British people were not so happy to hear of the plane order. They dont think the Prime Minister is on the same level of the US President when it comes to private or secure aircraft. Will be very interesting. I cant wait to see it :):)
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Post by Mavke »

Wel the plane already exist , the PM already using it

picture: http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.php?id=116467


mavke

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earthman
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Post by earthman »

They call the plane the 'Blairforce One' in the UK, or so I've heard.

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bits44
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Post by bits44 »

Aircraft registered in the Netherlands, no C of A

pretty old aircraft for the P.M.

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Post by mmciau »

Australian has 2 off BBJ, flown by the RAAF, maintained by Qantas. Australian PM is currently (26 June) in Indonesia with one of them.

Mike

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David747
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Post by David747 »

nice to know blairfoce one is a 737 :D

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Post by speedbird1 »

As a Brit spotter, I can say that most non aviation people in the UK wouldn't even know how he gets to European meetings. They see the BA T777 on the news but that's about it. I haven't seen anything in the UK press about it anyway. They should bring back a Concorde just for govt use, that'd get alot of people going... :wink:

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Post by vc-10 »

It has been called Blair Force One. However, there is talk about him getting 2 planes, a big one and a small one. The specks for the big one is 215 pax, sugesting an A330 or something. An A330-200 would fit in well with the RAF's new tankers aswell. Also, he would not be popular for using an American plane with very few British components instead of a European plane with British wings and engines.

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Post by hanahiyo »

David747 wrote:nice to know blairfoce one is a 737 :D
Me too!
Sounds very intresting for me.
:D

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Post by teddybAIR »

bits44 wrote:Aircraft registered in the Netherlands, no C of A

pretty old aircraft for the P.M.
Type of aircraft: BOEING 737-8DR
First reg date :29/11/2001

Is 4,5 years old to you? Sounds like a pretty new plane to me! Anybody got figures on the number of flight hours on that airframe?

Lot's of pictures of it were taken at Palma de Mallorca. Here is one of them: picture

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bits44
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Post by bits44 »

I would have thought the British Goverment would have bought a new aircraft, especially when the Royal Family will be using it as well.

Also the aircarft in question has its Certificate of Airworthiness revoked??

That means it can't fly in Britain, and other places.


KT
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Stepha380
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Post by Stepha380 »

It's far cheaper to buy an old airplane because if you don't use it often (not like an airline) the loss of value is smaller.
French Air Force has even leased two A340 to support army.

Abrahamovitch and Google's guys have both bought second-hand airplanes.

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TexasGuy
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Post by TexasGuy »

vc-10 wrote:It has been called Blair Force One. However, there is talk about him getting 2 planes, a big one and a small one. .
Uh oh, is he getting a fleet of planes like his American counterpart? I think the current US presidential fleet consist of 747-757-737- DC 9
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Post by cageyjames »

I know back when Clinton was president he used to use the 757s to save money over running the 747 (well at least while traveling in the US, I'm sure he used the 747 for photo ops).

I've always thought the US should drop the 747-200s and move to the 777-200LR to save some money. 8)

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TexasGuy
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Post by TexasGuy »

cageyjames wrote:I know back when Clinton was president he used to use the 757s to save money over running the 747 (well at least while traveling in the US, I'm sure he used the 747 for photo ops).

I've always thought the US should drop the 747-200s and move to the 777-200LR to save some money. 8)
Im suprised there are no 777's in the presidential fleet. As for having them as the main aircraft, the USAF wouldnt like that very much. They are into 4 engined jets only for the main aircraft :)
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Post by DFW »

cageyjames wrote:I've always thought the US should drop the 747-200s and move to the 777-200LR to save some money. 8)
It's cheaper to maintain the Air Force One you have than to buy a new one. It doesn't fly often enough to justify the higher fuel efficiency. Plus outfitting a new airplane with the required electronics would run into the tens of millions, even without the gadgets that Harrison Ford had at his disposal in the movie Air Force One. :wink:
By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly an airplane?

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TexasGuy
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Post by TexasGuy »

DFW wrote:
cageyjames wrote:I've always thought the US should drop the 747-200s and move to the 777-200LR to save some money. 8)
It's cheaper to maintain the Air Force One you have than to buy a new one. It doesn't fly often enough to justify the higher fuel efficiency. Plus outfitting a new airplane with the required electronics would run into the tens of millions, even without the gadgets that Harrison Ford had at his disposal in the movie Air Force One. :wink:

I heard that the pair of AF 1 jets cost close to 1 billion to build.
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Post by cageyjames »

TexasGuy wrote:I heard that the pair of AF 1 jets cost close to 1 billion to build.
The total cost to the military for the F-22 is about $300m per plane. I know the F-35 is about 1/3 the cost, but the B-2 staggers in at $1.1b to $2 a plane. Guess that is why they only bought about 20 instead of about 130 bombers.

Of course the USMC is headed for disaster waiting for those F-35s.

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