JA402J

[Pieter C. 5]

Guys,

 

Went spotting this afternoon, after a dreadful rainy morning, and look...........what I saw: it really made my day :

 

This is what you'll see when the aircraft is departing the South-apron:

 

Turning to cross the runway 24 about midway - look at the reflection of wing and engines on the fuselage:

 

Very friendly observer waving to the crowd:

 

About to cross runway 24 - this one is for you Azahan, although not quite a nose-shot :

 

Really nice and shiny fuselage - looking stunning in these new colours :

 

V1, rotate......:

 

Airborne from runway 24 - nice wingflex:

 

Positive climb, "gear-up":

 

more to follow in a different topic ....................

 

 

 

[Kevin Teh 0]

special livery? the reflection on the fuselage is so nice !!

[Ibrahim 0]

Agree With Kevin.. Realy Sharp Pic Pieter.. you realy make my day today.. 1 word 'Cool'.

Edited April 2, 2006 by Ibrahim

[TK 0]

flying mirror....i can see my face!!

[Seth K 3]

Is that guy waving or cover his face from spotters?

Nice pixs there Pieter, I thought the plane going to run thru the audience.

[Chaity 1]

Hi Pieter, thanks for the nice photos of this shiny plane.

 

Sure envy you guys can get so close and no lamp posts in the way.

 

 

[Sneeze Lam 0]

Pieter,

 

You have got marvelous shots

 

clapping hands

 

P.S.: I have missed the KLM Aisa yesterday

[Attan 0]

Wonderful pics of a wonderful bird! Thanks, Pieter.

[LeeCH 0]

Absolute fantastic of a chrome elephant in the skies.....have not seen this since my last flight to Japan in Kansai back in October.....I am very fond of this aircraft, always on the lookout for this.....

 

No paint = more payload??

[Jonathan Kong 0]

Cantik Cantik Cantik! Like TK said, flying mirror

[Kelvin B 0]

Beautiful shots Pieter.....! Really love the shine on that baby...!!

 

 

No paint = more payload??

 

I heard that with special paint jobs such as the Hibiscus, there is actually a lot more weight, and the additional fuel costs are considerable. Can anybody confirm that?

 

 

 

[Sneeze Lam 0]

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Beautiful shots Pieter.....! Really love the shine on that baby...!!

I heard that with special paint jobs such as the Hibiscus, there is actually a lot more weight, and the additional fuel costs are considerable. Can anybody confirm that?

 

 

Yes, one more paint layer, can be one or more tonnes weight added.

[Seth K 3]

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Beautiful shots Pieter.....! Really love the shine on that baby...!!

I heard that with special paint jobs such as the Hibiscus, there is actually a lot more weight, and the additional fuel costs are considerable. Can anybody confirm that?

Yes, one more paint layer, can be one or more tonnes weight added.

 

One layer paint cost Tonnes , I thought kg's.

[Sneeze Lam 0]

One layer paint cost Tonnes , I thought kg's.

 

 

Hahaha

Sorry SK, I got a fault,

It should be the adding of a few hundreds pounds

 

From CX's articles, for a fully painted B772 of the company,

the paints weighted with 475 pounds.

 

Sorry again

[Denny Yen 0]

Congrats to Pieter for bagging these pics. It looks all the spotters were really excited about that plane. I read in an article in 2004 about this plane. Its not a special livery, JAL wanted to use it to test its aerodynamic efficiency. I believe initially 2 JAL 744Fs were in this bare-metal scheme

[Norman 1]

Hi Pieter, thanks for the nice photos of this shiny plane.

 

Sure envy you guys can get so close and no lamp posts in the way.

 

Chaity... not only they don't have lamp post

I don't see any fence at all in the first pix...

 

Pieter... you're very lucky spotter ... Thanks for sharing this mirror, Sir

 

-

[Raj 0]

Nice shots pieter..Wow cool..She must b really really shiny..

[Min Chun 0]

Fuah!!! Reflection..Really beautiful , Pieter!

Mana MH?

[Pieter C. 5]

Fuah!!! Reflection..Really beautiful , Pieter!

Mana MH?

 

Min Chun,

 

see other topic "runway 24 spotting"

[Kwek 0]

Very nice!

[Radzi 2]

JAL also have at least one B742F in this bare-metal livery, JA8180. Saw it in KUL in early 2004.

 

Here is the link: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0516935/L/

And Jonathan got it too: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0729235/L/

 

Beautiful.

 

The late Eastern Airlines used bare metal as their standard livery.

Edited April 3, 2006 by Radzi

[Raymond Ngu 0]

Awesome plane with awesome colour scheme.

Very shiny indeed.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Denny Yen 0]

Googled it, and found the answers to everyone's curiosity about this bird.

p/s: Sneeze's answer is closest to getting 100% points.

 

The naked truthThe naked truth

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo

source: Orient Aviation journal - Mar 2006

 

Japan Airlines (JAL) is stripping back to bare skin in an effort to contain spiralling costs. To date, three Boeing 747 freighters have gone back to bare metal, which is reducing the weight of the aircraft by about 200 kilograms.

 

And with concerns about rising fuel costs, JAL has been delighted to learn that not painting the fuselage saves about 40,000 litres of fuel per aircraft per year, enough fuel each year for a return trip between Tokyo and Sapporo for each of the three aircraft.

 

“We have been experimenting with the unpainted freighter – or ‘polished skin’ freighter – since 1992 and now have three B747s in service,” said JAL’s international media spokesman, Geoff Tudor.

 

“The idea was to periodically polish the aluminium skin to prevent corrosion and preserve the lustre instead of using paint, which is time consuming to remove and wasteful,” he said.

 

Painting a single B747 requires around 250 man hours of labour and costs some Y2.5 million (US$23,000). With wear and tear taking their toll, JAL gives its aircraft a new paint job between 4.5 years and six years of service.

 

As well as serving as a flying advertisement for the airline, paint protects the body of the aircraft from ultra-violet rays, wind pressure and sudden changes in temperature.

 

It was also believed that a layer of paint would prevent corrosion and extend the life of the skin – although JAL says that close examination of the ‘naked’ jets show no significant difference in reduced corrosion in comparison with a ‘fully clothed’ version.

 

And while more freighters will appear in ‘the buff’ in future, JAL is not planning a more radical make-over of its fleet.

 

“We will continue to paint our passenger aircraft,” said Tudor. “The promotional benefits are very important and people react to new designs.

 

“From time to time we have special liveries featured on a number of aircraft, to mark our 50th anniversary or to promote a JALways’ resort, for example.”

 

JALways is a subsidiary airline that operates on resort routes and the livery includes colourful tropical birds and bougainvillea across the fuselage.

 

“But now we have proved that polishing is as effective as painting in preventing corrosion, we will probably leave all new freighters unpainted from now on,” said Tudor.

[Sneeze Lam 0]

Googled it, and found the answers to everyone's curiosity about this bird.

p/s: Sneeze's answer is closest to getting 100% points.

 

 

Well, haha, I have mixed up the saved fuel amount with the saved aircraft weight.

Edited April 3, 2006 by Sneeze Lam

[Meor 0]

I wonder how MH or AK will look like if chrome all body???

 

hehehehe...

 

-cheers-