Nose on an aircraft?

[Captain]

I've often seen pictures of aircrafts in scrapyards without their noses.

Whys is this the case?

- Worth a lot of money?
- Can be easily fitted onto another plane of the same model?

[OOODF]

Never thought about that, but my guess would be that removing the nose is the easiest way to access the valuable items of the avionics, e.g. radar stuff...

[AN124]

In the nose cone of a plane a lot of stuff is implemented like radar.
These noses are re-used at other planes flying around if one becomes damaged.

Best Regards,
Yvo

[Captain]

Makes more sense now.

I only thought that the nose was used to balance the front of the plane and was v. heavy.

Also v. important for aerodynamics

Thanks,

Captain

[janhuub]

The nose is very easy to replace and I guess that's why they take it off parked or stored airplanes.
You can see an example of Thomas Cook's TCC flying around with a nose that's not really his, after his own nose got damaged.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/350941/M/

Greetz

jan

[L-1011]

The nose cone is the most changed part in an airplane because as it is made out of lightweight composites, it cannot be repaired if it gets a bump in it, and it has to be in perfect conditions so that it does not impair the radar .

ciao,
TriStar

[Avro]

The nose cone is the most changed part in an airplane

It all depends which plane you are talking about. On OO-SFM it would be the engines

Chris
8)