The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser

[Roscoe]

Interesting to read about the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser and how it compares to the Airbus a380. It could carry up to 100 passengers on the main deck plus 14 in the lower deck lounge; typical seating was for 63 or 84 passengers or 28 berthed and five seated passengers. The 28 berthed passengers were sleeper berths, something the a380 does not have. The Stratocruiser first flew in July 1947, many years before the a380. The main difference is that the a380 can carry up to 853 passengers - quite a few more. Thought that you might find that intriguing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_377_Stratocruiser

[kenj]

Funny you should post about that. I just watched a doco on this aeroplane (24 minutes on Youtube.) a few days ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83fFuWBt5ac&t=747s

Ken

[Terry Porritt]

That takes one back a bit.

In the UK I used to buy The Aeroplane magazine during the 1950s, a weekly publication that cost 1/- or 1/6d. Sometimes it was enormously thick when it was a special edition, the thing was, at that time there was something new in aviation absolutely all the time, so every week it was packed with the latest aviation news.

The mag still exists, but only as a retro nostalgia mag with articles about Spitfires and Lancasters etc. There really is a limit to how much can keep being regurgitated.

[pctek]

I've watched lots of docos.....they're called Air CRash Investigation.
Interesting how the stuffups occur sometimes, especially with Airbus....

[paulw]

I've watched lots of docos.....they're called Air CRash Investigation.
Interesting how the stuffups occur sometimes, especially with Airbus....

That's why some air fan sites call them Deathbus.

[KenESmith]

Civil Airliners involved in fatal crashes involving deaths of paying passengers

Airbus 300/310 has 2.67 % of a total fleet of 487 aircraft
Airbus 320 has 0.2 % of a total fleet of3708 aircraft
Airbus 330 has 0.1 % of a total fleet of 943 aircraft
Boeing 737 has 1.29 % of a total fleet of 4644 aircraft
Boeing 747 has 1.9 % of a total fleet of 788 aircraft
Douglas DC9 has 5.14 % of a total fleet of 1090 aircraft
Douglas DC10 has 4.4% of a total fleet of 386 aircraft

These somewhat grim statistics don't really tell much of the story,
Firstly the accident rate should be related to the total hours flown by each make/model of aircraft.
Secondly, one must look at the type of flying each aircraft is doing, Longhaul,v short/commuter flights ie the number of take off landing cycles is highly relevant, as the majority of accidents happen on take off or landing or within airfield traffic patterns.
Thirdly, break the accidents down to pilot error or airframe/engine failures, as pilot errors are not usually the fault of the aircraft design or structure.
Then there is some reasonable correlation between aircraft type and safety

[KenESmith]

Interesting how the stuffups occur sometimes, especially with Airbus.

The Airbus 300/310 is the only Airbus commercial aircraft to have significant crashes, 13 in all out of a build of 487.
Two of them were hijackings, and a further four were pilot error, a Russian one was lost because the Captain let his son have a go at flying, somewhat unsuccessfully. A number of the crashes were aircraft operated by Third World Airlines, the sort of airline prudent people would avoid.
It was Airbus' first Commercial jet, and was fairly successful.
Later model Airbuses have an excellent safety record certainly quite comparable with Boeing.
The commercial aircraft with a significantly higher accident rate come from McDonnel Douglas, and are the DC9 and DC10,
The DC9 flying ops are mainly on commuter and short haul flights, and the aircraft have been round for quite some time.
The one that stands out is the DC10, which was primarily used on Longhaul flights, Several were lost due to a Cargo door fault, and American Airlines used an unorthdox method of engine change ( using a forklift0, and damaged and over stressed engine pylons. And let us not forget Air New Zealand's major cockup due to false co-ordinates being programmed into the system that caused Flt 901 to come to a sudden stop against Mt Erebus.