Plane of the Day - B757

Av101 is here for you again. In other words, watch out! Read on if you dare.

    How can you not like a plane nicknamed “the flying pencil”?

    The plane is so long and skinny that the B757-300 stretched version has a retractable tail skid. While the skid prevents damage from tail-strike landings, the main benefit is the awesome rooster tail of sparks that spray behind the plane when hot-dogging pilots get it just right.

    Flying such a plane costs anywhere from $15,000 to $18,000 per hour. A typical commercial version carries 234 passengers altogether, with 24 in first class and the rest in the sardine seats. But not all planes are typical – that would be no fun.

    Donald Trump has a pumped-up vintage 1990 B757-200 N757AF which he calls “Trump Force One”. His crown jewel features gold-plated lavatory fixtures and seatbelt buckles, strapping 43 passengers in comfort…when it was in flying condition.

    Unfortunately, that particular plane may never fly again. It’s been parked outside since 2019 and has fallen into disrepair. One engine has been removed, and while a B757 has a healthy ETOPS rating for single-engine flight, that does not include taking off. So the T-Bird remains mothballed at Stewart Int’l Airport New York, 80 miles outside of the Big Apple. The repair costs will be hundreds of thousands of dollars, and much more if the engine must be replaced entirely. Doh!

    He is now slumming it in an old Cessna 750 Citation X which doesn’t even have his name tattooed on the side. Really, you have to feel sorry for the big guy.

    The B757 comes complete with engines (Boeing is nice that way). The buyer can choose between RB211 or PW2000 engines. Either way, the plane can fly 4100 nautical miles (4700 miles) for 16 hours at more than 500 mph. PRO TIP: For maximum distance, stay away from the ducks.

    Like all commercial aircraft, B757s sport red and green lights on the wingtips. The red ones are stop, and the green ones are go. This is all you need to learn; the autopilot will handle the rest.

    A B757 cockpit essentially mirrors a B767 cockpit, enabling pilots to become certified on both models with minimal interpretation, extrapolation, or confabulation. Legend has it that pilot Douglas Corrigan entered the cabin of a B757 in New York that was bound for Los Angeles thinking that it was a B767 headed to Dublin, Ireland, so that’s where he went. “Same thing,” he said, “I don’t know why everyone’s so riled up about it.” Look it up if you think I’m lying.

    Less amusing is the fact that the 9/11 terrorists used (2) B757s and (2) B767s. Thanks to the similar cockpits, the Al-Qaeda terrorists could curtail their flight training (especially when they didn’t practice landing).

    The Flying Pencil is well known for its unusual nose landing gear shown below.

 In other words, the Flying Pencil is equipped with a flying eraser! No other aircraft makes that boast.

    Between 1981 and 2004 Boeing made a total of (1540) units. There were two models, the original B757-200s and the longer, more popular B757-300s. It is the -300 model that looks especially long and pencilly.

    Only 642 B757s remain to plow the skies. They represent 61% of the total run, so this is clearly a platform on the decline. Same as it ever was, and as it ever shall be. Some future day people will hang around the water cooler discussing rotables and say, “Those crappy old B797 parts are gathering dust – get them out of our inventory. Dump ‘em in the dumpster!”

    But the remaining B757s are not flying away quietly into the sunset. Thanks to the burgeoning cargo business, old passenger planes are being converted for a second incarnation as freighters.

    So where are the B757s now, in the year 2021? Av101 has answers. Here are answers to some questions that you may never have thought to ask:

   Someone’s been doing his homework!

    For more (a lot more) on airlines in general you can subscribe to the Av101 Worldwide Fleet database for $150 per year, updated monthly. This includes airlines…and the airline people who matter most to the aviation aftermarket. It is made especially for the aviation aftermarket. There’s nothing like it anywhere. Contact me for a tantalizing sample.

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