daftandbarmy
Army.ca Dinosaur
- Reaction score
- 31,988
- Points
- 1,160
Ouch...
“There’s a reason why zero, exactly zero, airlines on the planet operate the 707,” Gen. Mark Kelly, the head of Air Combat Command, said on Wednesday at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference.
It’s because of the engines, Kelly explained. Specifically the “challenges of sustaining a 707 with TF33 engines.”
TF33 engines, like the 707 itself, are very old. The engine and the aircraft were first flown in 1959 and 1957, respectively, though the aircraft did not fly as an Air Force AWACS platform until 1975. The 707 was once “synonymous with the new jet age” and ushered in “the era of mass air-travel,” according to the BBC. But that time has gone, and now it takes a small miracle just to keep them aloft, Kelly said.
The Air Force flies these planes daily. Here's why civilian airlines won't
“There’s a reason why zero, exactly zero, airlines on the planet operate the 707,” Gen. Mark Kelly, the head of Air Combat Command, said on Wednesday at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference.
It’s because of the engines, Kelly explained. Specifically the “challenges of sustaining a 707 with TF33 engines.”
TF33 engines, like the 707 itself, are very old. The engine and the aircraft were first flown in 1959 and 1957, respectively, though the aircraft did not fly as an Air Force AWACS platform until 1975. The 707 was once “synonymous with the new jet age” and ushered in “the era of mass air-travel,” according to the BBC. But that time has gone, and now it takes a small miracle just to keep them aloft, Kelly said.
The Air Force flies these planes daily. Here's why civilian airlines won't