Jumbo diverted to RAF Lyneham
Swindon Advertiser
19th October 2005
www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk
A Gigantic 180 tonne Jumbo jet, 70 metres in length and 64 metres wingspan, had to stop for the night when permission was refused for it to land at Heathrow.

The British Airways Boeing 747 was on a training flight on Monday night, and had to be diverted to RAF Lyneham when landing clearance was denied at London's busiest airport Heathrow. It is not an unfamiliar sight in our Wiltshire skies to see massive jets circling and landing at the active Wiltshire airbase.

RAF Lyneham spokesman Sergeant Paul Spencer-White said "We have a 24 hour set-up and act as an overflow airport for Heathrow, so the jumbo jet stayed here until this morning"

The regular use by non military airliners can only echo the true value of Wiltshire's only airbase. It reflects that the present Government decision to close the base by 2012, following a Stategic Defence Review in 2003 may have been an oversight of what potential the air force facilities can provide. Lyneham has two operational runways, whereas the chosen station on the Defence Review has a sole runway often closed to anticyclonic conditions in the Thames basin of Oxfordshire.

The Boeing 747, commonly nicknamed as the Jumbo Jet, is the most recognized of all modern airliners, and is the largest passenger airliner in service. It will be surpassed in size, however, when the Airbus A380 enters service in late 2006. However, the Antonov An-225 retains the record of being the world's largest commercial aircraft.

The four-engine 747, produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, uses a two-deck configuration, where the small upper deck is usually used for business-class passengers. A typical three-class layout accommodates about 400 passengers while a one-class layout accommodates a maximum of 600 passengers. The hump created by the upper deck has made the 747 a highly recognizable icon of air travel.

The 747 flies at high-subsonic speeds (typically 0.85 Mach or 565 mph or 909 km/h) and features intercontinental range (8,430 statute miles, or 13,570 km, for the 747-400 version). In some configurations this is sufficient to fly non-stop from New York to Hong Kong - a third of the way around the globe. In 1989, a Qantas 747-400 flew non-stop from London to Sydney, a distance of 11,185 miles (18,000 km), in 20 hours and 9 minutes, although this was a delivery flight with no passengers or freight aboard.

By May 2005, a total of 1382 aircraft have been built or ordered in various 747 configurations, making it a profitable product for Boeing.

Jumbo Facts and Trivia

• A 747-400 has six million parts (half of which are fasteners)
• At the time of its launch, the term "jumbo jet" had already been coined by the media to describe a general class of new wide-bodied airliners then being developed, including the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, which the RAF has stationed at neighbouring RAF Brize Norton, and Douglas DC-10. Boeing was quite keen to discourage the media and the public using the term "jumbo jet" for the 747, but their efforts were in vain, and now the term is synonymous with the 747.
• Due to its immense length, there is a very small flexure of the fuselage in flight. This effect was not anticipated in the design of the autopilot on early models, and so there is a very slow oscillation in yaw when flying on autopilot. This was first discovered on an overseas flight to the Paris Airshow, when some of the people in the rear got air sick. Upon return, the plane went through a shake test for two weeks to sort out the problem and adjust the yaw damper system. This solved the problem and the effect is now too small to be noticeable by passengers.
• Just one engine on a 747 produces more thrust than all four engines on an early model Boeing 707 combined.
• When pressurized, a 747 fuselage holds over a ton of air.

Did you know: The Antonov An124 has landed at RAF Lyneham in February 2003, on the orders of an Abu Dhabi sheikh. The aircraft was chartered by his highness sheikh Tahnoon Bin Mohammed Al Nahayan, the ruling representative of the Eastern region of Abu Dhabi, to carry the aircraft and equipment of the Utterly Butterly wing-walking team. The barnstorming team has been invited by the sheikh to perform at Al Ain 2003, one of the largest outdoor festivals in the Middle East.