Fry's Electronics owns and operates a rare 747SP | Hacker News Reader

Fry's Electronics owns and operates a rare 747SP

planespotters.net

75 pointsbmir-alum-007111 comments

So the SP is for "Special Performance". It has a shortened body and allows the plane to travel further and faster than the regular 747. Apparently only about 45 were ever made.

Las Vegas Sands also operates two and their page has better photos of the stubby body and huge tail of the SP:

http://www.planespotters.net/Production_List/Boeing/747/2164...

http://www.planespotters.net/Production_List/Boeing/747/2196...

I've seen one of these LVS 747's in person. It may be "smaller" than the regular one, but it is truly massive. If you ever stay at Mandalay Bay and face the airport, you are basically looking almost directly over the LVS hangar. The only thing that would concern me if I were a super-whale that earned a trip on this plane is its age...nearly 40 years is a very long time in airplane years.

>> nearly 40 years is a very long time in airplane years

The reason it isn't, in fact, a very long time is that airplanes, unlike most other vehicles, are subject to highly rigorous regular maintenance and part replacement programs. The airframes themselves can last essentially forever (well beyond the decades time frame that we're discussing) if specified maintenance continues to be performed. Witness the many WWII and earlier aircraft still flying at seven or more decades of life.

I'm regularly overflown by USAF KC-135 tankers with FY 57 serials.

There isn't much left in them that was actually built in 1957

Also to use shorter runways - they were the only 747s ever allowed to use Wellington Airport, for example (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_International_Airpo...).

Taller vertical stabilizer too, to compensate for the shorter axis between it and the wings (moment arm).

For some reason, that brings back fond memories of Flight Simulator Aircraft and Scenery Designer... turning the jet aircraft into a "U-2" with a massive, thin wing w/ winglets and a ridiculously big vertical stabilizer. Oh and 80,000 lbs. of thrust.

Btw, a ZIP of it for emulators:

http://fshistory.simflight.com/fsvault/downloads/msfs4b-asd....

Kind of the opposite of the SR (short range) that packs more people in for less range. Popular in Japan where they regularly carry North of 500 people on short routes like Tokyo to Osaka.

The Japanese air industry is really strange - I've never understood why using large widebodies on short hops is so popular there.

I've been on the Pokemon variant[0] of that flight!

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Jet

The SP has a very stubby look to it; you can see just how much shorter it is (~15m), comparing the shortest and longest 747 variants:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Luxavia_747SP_Wallner.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lufthansa_Boeing_747-8_(1...

Yup, one of the few still in operation is actually used by IranAir.

I can't believe, in a discussion of the Boeing 747SP, no one has mentioned this one:

https://www.sofia.usra.edu/Sofia/sofia.html

Before I went to school for CS, I was actually an aircraft mechanic. I personally worked on this plane at the L3 center in Waco, TX. And now for the rest of the story:

From what I recall, the plans for an air-born telescope were conceived around 1992-93. The plane was located and purchased (don't know from who, but it was first operated by PanAm) sometime before 1995 and brought to the L3 airstrip in Waco, TX. I came on board with L3 for another project in 2005, and the plane still had a lot of work to be done. Sometimes we 'd hit a 'slow week' on my current project and my manager would send me over to the hanger where Sofia was to 'help'. Which was where a bulk of the problems came from.

I don't think there was a steady stream of money for the project, or at least the parts we needed. So people were constantly moved from other projects onto Sofia as needed and there was always lots of rework and spin up time. The core team with the plane was probably only 10 people or so. When I was there, most of the mounts and cutout for the telescope had already been completed. I can't remember if the telescope remained installed or not, but there were pictures around various buildings of the 'first light', so the telescope had at least been installed at one time.

Most of my jobs were repairing damages to the aluminum flooring and ceiling substructures (not sure why they were damaged). Most of the time I was handed a mixed bag of aluminum floor repair brackets with a warning of 'careful, the last 2 guys that worked this DR (discrepancy report) don't work here any more', so the jobs were always stressful.

I would spend a lot of time just trying to find the damaged areas, and normally they weren't fixed because some equipment was in the way, so you ended up burning a lot of time on already over timed tickets just looking (hence why these tickets were the 'widow makers'). There were many large .5”-1” iron plates mounted all over the floors for ballast, can't remember if they were going to stay installed or removed when all the computer equipment was installed, but they were normally always in the way.

I finally managed to pull some strings with another manager that ran a night shift on a completely different project (P3 wing restoration) with a story about how I wanted to take training classes during the day at a local tech school. It worked and they put me on his team and my Sofia days were over. Shortly after that, due to another project needing hanger space, they pushed Sofia out onto an unused taxiway to make room. They then hung/installed all four engines on the wings for 'visual progress' even though they knew they wouldn't even be testing them for another few years.

I worked the night shift for about a year and a half before I moved in with some relatives and went to University for CS. This was partly motived by the German engineering team (don't know why they were all German) that would visit Sofia from time to time and plug in their laptops to all the telescope equipment on the plane and hack on stuff (I guess) while they laughed and joked all day. This made me quite jealous, and as a Linux geek, I then knew I was in the wrong place for a career path :)

Extra note: if I ever have another daughter, I am pushing my wife to allow me to name her Sofia, upon which I will hang a picture of this plane in her room :)

The telescope itself is the major German contribution, so all the telescope engineers are German.

I didn't know that existed! Thanks for the link, I'm in for some reading.. I love HN for this stuff..

http://www.747sp.com

operators: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Boeing_747_operators

I don't doubt that they have money in the bank. I remember when an exec was accused of taking money from the company? it was like 75mil. Now if they would just organize their stores.... http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11290227

Fry's is a sinking ship.

If you've ever tried to buy anything at any of their stores, you'll notice you get sales people asking to scan your items and print you a quote. Fry's employees don't actually get paid hourly wages anymore, they need to write up merchandise that customers buy which have a per-item commission attached (generally .50- $5 per item, high margin items might be $5-$15). If an employee doesn't make their weekly minimum wage quota, they go into a debt (minimum hourly wage will be paid, but the difference is made into pseudo-debt), if they don't sell enough to get out of their debt or if they arn't making their large warranty quotas, they will be fired. Apparently Fry's used to offer their employees much better benefits, hourly + higher commissions, and there used to be some sort of "retirement" type bonus system where they earned a growing lumpsum of money that would only be paid out if they stuck with the company for more than 6 years or so, but they've scraped hourly pay for the commission-debt system, removed departments and dropped those employees into sales positions, and generally just cut corners everywhere possible without any real modernization.

Within the last few years they've pushed to match internet prices which is nice if you know their policy (limited list of official retailers, item must be in stock at that time, sometimes they arbitrarily add shipping costs). You'll piss off the sales person that writes you the price matched quote because they'll lose any normal commission. From talking to the employees, it's a toxic work environment and the entire store is feverishly being badgered to meet quotas for warranty sales.

Fry's is a crazy store, it's in a position to be cutting edge for the maker scene where Best Buy, and Radio Shack have failed, but it's still stuck behind 20 years and ridiculously inefficient and short sighted corporatcracy. On that note, if you walk into a home depot you'll probably notice a maker bot demo set up.

Don't forget the fact that they sell the same items for different prices in different areas of the store, and take the default position that you've stolen from them until you produce your receipt as you leave.

Ah, the Final Insult. After standing in the checkout line and paying, I just smile, say "My receipt looks correct, thanks" and walk right by the guy checking purchases at the door. They can't stop you. Been doing this since they instituted the practice (20 years ago?)

Man, try returning a computer, especially a broken one. A true conversation:

"This system doesn't work."

"Right. That's why I'm returning it."

"We can't take it back if it's not working, it means we can't put it back on the shelf."

Facepalm. And reasoned argument, escalating into rather loud voices until they give me my money back just to get rid of me. Do not ever, ever buy a white box computer at Fry's.

This is why you buy things with credit cards. You don't have to yell at employees, you just have to call your credit card company. Part of the contract you have with the credit card companies and the contract the credit card companies have with retailers includes guarantees of robust return policy very often extending the retailer's.

I've never had any luck with that. I called the CC company in front of the Fry's folks and the CC folks just said, basically, "tough, if they won't take it back, that's not our problem"

I don't use that CC any more.

I realize this is splitting hairs, and no comfort to the customer who is inconvenienced, but... I used to work at the periphery of the security industry, and the primary focus of retail security measures are directed at the employees. Notice that the highest concentration of security cameras in big-box stores are directly above the cash registers. There is equipment that simultaneously records the register transaction data stream on top of the security video.

I've encountered the same receipt-checking at Guitar Center on the rare occasion when I've shopped there, and GC's employees also work on some sort of screwy commission system that at least superficially resembles a sweatshop. I suspect that there are some kinds of fiddles that involve ringing you up for one item and walking you out the door with another.

> default position that you've stolen from them until you produce your receipt as you leave.

As a matter of principle, I always walk directly past receipt checkers at store exits. I've never been stopped, although I've gotten some nasty looks.

As long as it's not a membership situation (where one can lose the membership over that), that is your right, but it is also their right to ban you for life if you refuse.

I believe that doesn't happen often, so I don't doubt that it hasn't been an issue for you so far, but it doesn't mean it will never be an issue.

Your choice of course.

Several years ago I used to bike to a Costco to get my meds at the pharmacy (you didn't need to be a member to use it). I used to get pissed off they'd want to search my backpack on the way out-what were they going to do, revoke my non existent membership? Find a giant pallet of toilet paper I hid in it?

At a Sam's Club the door guy literally grabbed my cart on my way out when I did not show him my receipt. I cancelled my membership the next day.

I urge you to change your perspective. You are punishing the receipt checker for trying to enforce a policy they have no say in or control over. If their boss sees you walk past them, they can get fired, in which case you will have directly harmed them. In contrast, showing your receipt takes less than 5 seconds.

That's stupid. If they've been given a job which is impossible to enforce and been told they'll be fired if they don't enforce it then that's obviously silly and it's not my fault that it's silly. If an employee is tasked to make everyone hop from the door to my car should I also do that? What about if an employee is tasked to make everyone fly from the door to their car? What about then?

Not at all. If they tried to physically stop you from leaving, that is what would get them fired.

Is there any documented evidence that Fry's is sinking(/losing money)?

I don't doubt it per se, I just want to pin down that notion. I find it shocking that they outlived Circuit City and Radio Shack, so I'm beginning to wonder if maybe they're actually profitable and we're just annoyed that their target market doesn't necessarily capture us anymore (the way it did in the 90s and to some extent the 00s in my case).

(note: a descendent comment asking about a Best Buy reference pointed out that I inadvertently said Fry's outlived Best Buy; I meant Circuit City and corrected it, but that may just add more confusion with the resulting conversation)

No, and in fact it is quite the opposite, they have been putting their competitors out of business and were cited by Radio Shack at one point as to why they were going out of business[1].

In the Bay area they have replenished some of their "maker" supplies to be more relevant again but it is spotty. They prefer high margin items like laptops or washer/dryer combinations. This is quite a bit lower than when parts distributors Wyle and Arrow were complaining that Fry's was selling individual parts at the 1K quantity price and cutting off their margins.

They also managed to kill off the electronics stores in the Bay area, Sunnyvale Electronics, Jade Systems, JDR Microdevices, Quement, Quest, Etc. JameCo has survived but in part because they have a decent mail order business and hold the line on their prices. I wrote a letter to Bill Fry complaining because after they killed off those businesses their component supply dropped off dramatically leaving folks in Silicon Valley ordering from a company in Minnesota to get parts they use to source locally.

That said, I find it hilarious when they have in their display case test equipment offered for sale from companies that are no longer in business.

[1] Of course Radio Shack probably cited everything at one time or another as to why they were going out of business.

They also managed to kill off the electronics stores in the Bay area

I'm sure Fry's had a lot to do with it, but a good deal of the problem is that "times are changing".

More stuff gets built exclusively in Asia nowadays, leaving fewer part overruns in the USA that can be sold to surplus companies that used to be in the Bay Area.

As SoCs become more prevalent there is just less need for glue chips. This is all across the board. E.g. 20 years ago every desktop PC needed a graphics card, or at least a graphics chip. But now the vast majority of video needs are satisfied by Intel's on-die graphics. Same with USB, it's in the Intel chipset. No need for SATA cards or chips, it's all in the Intel chipset. So is ethernet. Etc.

Plus in the old days hobbyists had a chance of being able to work with DIP components, or even SOICs. Nowadays the resistors and capacitors are almost too small to see without a stereo microscope. And BGA components can't easily be soldered or reworked without sophisticated equipment.

With more stuff being designed, debugged, and manufactured in Asia, I'm not surprised that Fry's has a lot of older test equipment collecting dust. No demand for it anymore.

We live in interesting times. Sucks for people who used to make a good living in electronics.

Compared to 30 years ago, I think the hobby electronics market has changed a lot.

Partly it's because a lot of the kids who would have been assembling Heathkits in 1980 are now making minecraft mods.

But even without that, there's been a shift in the electronics market. There are high demand, medium demand, and long tail components. Everyone has the high demand components at home. The long tail components aren't in high enough demand to stock in expensive-to-run high street stores, so they can only be mail ordered. The medium demand components are in between - the range is wide enough that people don't have them all already, but limited enough and in high enough demand that a high street store can satisfy demand and make enough money to stay in business.

30 years ago, medium demand components were things like 7400-series logic chips. Today, microprocessors like the arduino have most of that stuff built in, or can be programmed to do it. Nobody needs to go to the shops because they need a positive edge triggered dual D-type flip-flop and all they have at home is a dual master slave JK flip-flop.

I tend to largely agree with this, although if there was a store that stocked what Sparkfun or Adafruit have in their online store that I could go into and browse, I'd probably spend $100 a week in there.

Well, HSC is most certainly still around. Often cheaper than Digikey, with a great selection of jellybean components, as well as a really long tail of more obscure parts.

They're privately owned, so I'm unaware of any data. While an anecdote is not data in and of itself, the Fry's here in WA has been emptier and emptier (both in terms of merchandise on the floor and people) each time I've stopped by from 2008 to the present. I can't say for sure if it's a national trend, but out here Amazon Prime has eliminated the need of basically everyone I know to visit Fry's.

Same trend in Wilsonville, Oregon. It's "emptier and emptier".

What's this "outlived Best Buy" stuff? Best Buy still seems to be operating.

Oh wow jeez that's embarrassing. I was thinking of Circuit City and my brain just replaced it. My bad. Thanks for pointing it out.

I don't know that this indicates a business downturn but Fry's used to have its own 4-6 page insert in the S.J. Mercury in the Friday edition. For the last several years, this advert has been reduced to a single page on the back of one of the regular sections. Also, although very subjective, it appears to me that the huge parking lots at the Sunnyvale, San Jose, and Fremont stores are less crowded than I remember. Indicators? Maybe.

If you've ever tried to buy anything at any of their stores, you'll notice you get sales people asking to scan your items and print you a quote.

Is this a relatively recent change? And if not, are you sure it isn't for very specific departments, or certain price points or such? I don't go to Fry's all that often -- Amazon Prime blah blah etc. -- but I never saw them print out a quote sheet unless I did the internet price matching. The most recent purchase I've made there I can confirm is December 2013, though.

It's been something that the salespeople have done off and on through the years, but definitely something that's happening more frequently now. Usually they would just ask if you were also buying memory or something, now they'll ask if you just pass by and ask where something is.

> it's in a position to be cutting edge for the maker scene

I remember in the early 2000's there were a lot more discrete electronic components. Last time I went you could still find the soldering irons and oscilloscopes and resistors and such, but it wasn't nearly as impressive. Kind of sad! I guess not as many people do low-level circuits hacking in the age of surface-mount parts and Arduino boards on Amazon...

Arduino boards on amazon? Only if you don't mind paying five times the price.

http://www.amazon.com/Arduino-ARD-NANO30-Nano-v3-0/dp/B003YV...

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Freeshipping-Nano-3-0-control...

You just get them from aliexpress in china, which is where most of these things are made these days anyway.

Five times $2 isn't much -- and sometimes I'm willing to pay to have something today: Not in 3-4 weeks. It's not like arduinos (or whatever) are something I'm burning through often enough to worry about a few extra dollars.

So yeah, I don't mind paying 5x.

"Kind of sad! I guess not as many people do low-level circuits hacking in the age of surface-mount parts and Arduino boards on Amazon."

More people are building electronics than ever. But they're not buying from Fry's. Everybody serious gets their parts from Digi-Key and Mouser.

Oh definitely, I've done my fair share of Digi-Key orders too. The lack of a good actual-local-physical-store option for that one missing resistor on a Saturday is a little unfortunate though.

I do wonder what the overall trend is. I mean, it's certainly harder to build anything close to "state of the art" in miniaturization without having a custom PCB fabbed and soldering SMT. And it seems with all the premade building blocks (Arduino shields and such) fewer people would actually need to design from scratch. Also our idea of what's "interesting" has shifted a bit... the radio receiver and burglar alarm and amplifier kits I built as a kid (in the 90's) might not be be as exciting today. But then maybe the maker movement brings an influx of new experimenters regardless. Awesome if so.

And I also don't do hardware hobbyist stuff much anymore so I'm inclined to take your word for it if low-level circuit hacking really is getting popular again :-)

Same with Maplin's in the UK, used to sell components, now it's just a general electrical consumer goods store.

Not to say that their focus hasn't changed (and I particularly lament the loss of IC pinouts and mini datasheets in the catalogue) but they still have a substantial range of components for sale.

Not on Tottenham Court Road nor in Canary Wharf!

I've always managed to get what I need when I goto Fry's, but I did find the whole salesman thing odd. For a $20 cable or electronic product its nuts. There is nothing wrong with having a guy on the floor who can help customers make the right purchase, but trying to make a living off commission on $10 products is just a crazy idea.

I tried to buy cat6 patches at Fry's Santa Clara in a pinch. I couldn't check out with an extra $20 of cables in my cart until I found a checked out employee in the aisles to write up their commission.

Did they not let you check out at the register? I would have walked out on the sale if someone did that to me.

You bet. I used to work at Fry's in 2001. Frys used to have so many cashiers those days; salesmen used to make $6.75 (then CA min wage) + commission. Commission was also good then: like $100 for a $2500 toshiba laptop; 15% commission on perf warranties. Weekends used to so busy with shoppers.

Now you have merchandisers doing the cashier task. And you hardly see a row of cashiers. Even vendors are not happy with Fry's due to late payments.

I ran into that the other day when I went to Fry's to purchase an item, they had a big sign up that they beat Internet prices, so I checked the item on my phone and asked the sales person if they would match the price and they said that it was sold out. I just got a feeling that the whole place is circling the drain based on the over all shabbiness of all the displays and so on. It just has that look to it.

Their stores remind me of K-Mart stores.

(Dirty, poor displays, a lot of shelf space empty/out of stock, and always almost entirely empty.)

Exactly like the K-mart here. I can't figure out how they are still in business.

So, roughly the same as it ever was?

(It's still a great place for selection, if you don't count on salesperson knowledge or fast price-matching.)

There is a Fry's here and I like the store because it has a lot of computer electronics, and I've seen what you describe in action, I can't think that it is sinking either.

There are like 50 registers and not but a few are ever in use, and it is such a huge store with so many employees I can't understand how they can keep making money.

Walk into one on Black Friday. All the registers will be in use.

One day a year doesn't seem like a great business strat when the other 364 are 10% in use.

This is strange. Service at my local Fry's is absolutely terrible and they no longer try to write me up for a quote. I even bought a desk for $150 (which has to have high commission) and no one tried to get a piece of the sale. I don't think it works like that at my local one, or the incentives are completely rewired.

Ive never seen that, but i used to work for this company and repair computers for them. and FUCK man after seeing some of the shit that comes from Frys, i ended up giving this dude a new computer, the work was so bad that I would have essentially have had to replace almost 80% of the parts, and i would not know the reliability of the repair. Ended up just telling the manager to give him a new one.... that dude was hella funny, he came back two years later and i saw him and he instantly remembered me.

That being said, in the sales department we instead just paid everyone remotely the same, no commission on anything. Never was a toxic environment, never was any banter amongst people, and i feel that it def. helps sales due to not overselling shit to people.

Frys is a mess, but so is big box retail.

DEEPSEA / SPACE EXPLORATION get the workers in on that shit lets get off this stupid rock. its fucking about to be 2020 where the hell are the flying cars.

Fry's have good selection candies though.

That was really interesting. The guy had a $200,000 per year salary, but Frys loaned him $10 million. What were they thinking?

:D, didn't know that it was universally disorganized. Modern day RadioShack..

Apparently it's for sale. The 747sp.com ad roll says so anyways.

The history table is oddly precise. Who maintains this data? http://www.747sp.com/production-list/21992-447/

Here's the listing

http://www.controller.com/listingsdetail/aircraft-for-sale/B...

$1.5M is a lot lower than I would have guessed, unless this is like everything else in the Bay Area and the listing price is the floor and not the ceiling.

According to the owners manual for the 747, the most likely answer is that it requires a "D check", which is the 4th major maintenance check on the aircraft and will likely need major repairs. Also there is a modification called the "section 41" mod which is required of this aircraft, but most likely hasn't been done either. They estimate it at 7.5M to do both, and that was in 2005.

Throw in the fact that this thing isn't really that useful to an airline and you can see why the market value is so low.

Also, the manual states:

"Values of most 747-200s have now fallen to scrap level. That is, the intrinsic value of an aircraft is directly related the market value of its engines and any salvage value that can be derived from its rotables"

Which leads me to my last point - this aircraft might not have engines. Usually power plants are listed.

This is even better than my reply, bravo.

Anyone want to spend 1.5M on a ridiculous base for a house?

Maybe because it has 46000+ hours on it? thats almost 3.5 hours a day, every day. Also, owning a plane like that comes with some ridiculous expenses - you gotta park it somewhere, you have to maintain mechanical on it (annuals), and you have to pay for fuel. The cost of the plane probably pales in comparison to the cost of owning that plane.

46k hours and 8k cycles is not that old for a 747 - there are ones with 100k+ hours still flying.

There is an oversupply of 747s, though not this specific model; my understanding is Boeing hasn't really bothered with true production once the factory became backfilled with them, and that a 747 can be had disproportionately cheaply. Not $1.5M cheap though, not at all...

Interesting. Looks like it has mostly been parked. It has only logged 250 hours of use since November 2004, when it was listed for sale. Fry's bought it several months later. So that averages to only a few minutes daily since it was bought.

Probably Boeing. They have a vested interested in keeping their planes in operation with a good safety record. When you only produce a few hundred of something at the most it isn't that difficult to keep track of them all.

No, those are comments from plane spotters. People who track planes for fun. Looks like airliners.net

I would guess the FAA, but after a few minutes search on their site I couldn't find that exact info, though they have a lot of similar information.

The Saudis own one. I captured it last year.

https://planeimages.net/i/7VFu6v3BGBGX

That's a great low-light shot. What kind of camera were you using?

Also, looked up that particular plane and found that it's current operated by the Saudi government, so that's pretty interesting:

http://www.planespotters.net/Production_List/Boeing/747/2275...

Maybe he used a Canon EOS 6D with Focal Length: 120 Exposure Time: 1/50 at ISO: 12800.

The link you must have clicked lists it all

Ah, yes, there it is. I didn't initially scroll any lower than the watermark.

Love Agoda by the way.

John Fry tranports the San Jose Ballet and his sports team in the 747.

Which sports team?

(Evidently) the San Jose SaberCats (football).

Weird that the logo on the tail of the plane appears to be hockey...

You are correct. The logo is not the San Jose Sabrecats, it's the San Jose Sharks, the NHL team.

San Jose Sharks ink 'seven-figure' sponsorship deal with Fry's Electronics http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/09/17/national-...

Both teams played (or play) at the SAP Center (San Jose Arena). Probably, the 747 tail advert was a deal-clincher, goodwill/promotion gesture or both. It makes a lot of sense to drive/cross-promote advertising, sponsorships and other business into a common ecosystem.

As it happens, I used to hang out with the Sabercats and (now former) Saberkittens at (undisclosed) because of a Stanford hookup. Since I don't find drinking fun anymore, I'm old and boring now. :)

John Fry is the only pilot I know that has a private pilot's license and a 747 type certificate.

Most 747 pilots would have ATP.

I'm not a pilot, but my understanding is that type certifications are held to ATP standards. Is there some reason why a pilot would need both outside of being a commercial pilot who might encounter other types in his or her career?

I have no idea about the standard, but I don't think you'll need 1500 hours that's required for ATP.

No reason. Just very few PPLs would have access to a B747.

I believe John Travolta also flies a 747 on his PPL.

707 I believe.

I find it more entertaining that Bruce Dickinson flies commercial airliners for a hobby, and has flown his band around the world in a suitably-liveried 767.

757 - https://planeimages.net/i/Wqg9tJvxmyOq

""Ed Force One" maintain runway heading, cleared for take off Runway 01. " "Maintain runway heading, cleared for take off Runway 01. Ed Force One"

D'oh.

He owns a 707, but he also has a 747 type rating (among many others).

Would highly recommend this book by Joe Sutter the engineering leader for the 747 program: http://www.amazon.com/747-Creating-Worlds-Adventures-Aviatio...

Great book! I learned a lot from that (already was a huge 747 fan). In particular, compare the Boeing SST project at the time to the 747. It's obvious in hindsight why an efficient high capacity plane beat an inefficient low capacity plane- people want cheap tickets more than they want to get the destination in the least amount of time (hell, you can spend as much time in car traffic at the destination as you did in the air!).

Anybody know what they use this for. Seems like overkill for a corporate jet.

Regarding the seating, it's in the overkill range for a corporate jet, but the 747-SP is a significantly smaller plane compared to the regular 747. Capacity-wise, and size-wise, it's about the same as a 767 or 787, which do see some service in the corporate charter/owned jet.

It's used to fly the San Jose Sharks hockey team and staff.

That all depends on how grandiose your executives' lifestyles are. I wouldn't put using a 747 as a corporate (or even private) jet above some people.

Air Force One is a 747. The Executive Branch lifestyle!

Personal plane for John Fry.

Wow, looks like they are doing good for themselves. I was at the the first store grand opening in 1985, but my parents and grand parent, and grand grand parent's shopped at their Dad's grocery store.

After moving to Texas, when the bought out the Incredible universe stores, it was nice to have them. Now a days, I only go to them if I need something in a pinch.

I heard a rumor once that the SP in 747SP really means South Pacific, and that it was built to carry enough gas for flights from LAX to New Zealand and Australia.

I think the newer more fuel efficient airplanes from Boeing and Airbus have taken over that market.

No wonder their motherboards are so fresh in the morning.

Remember Fry's Outpost online?

They used to have killer deals before Newegg took over.

Can't believe they have the cash for a 747 though, I doubt newegg does!

Outpost was great back before Fry's bought them. Now they're about as useful as Best Buy's website.

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