LUFTHANSA’s 747-8i ‘Baden-Württemberg’ : A Walk Around of D-ABYG
Over the Thanksgiving Weekend, I flew to Frankfurt to attend Lufthansa Group’s annual internal Social Media conference which brings together all of LH Group’s divisions. The day-long conference lets each division share their experiences with Social Media marketing for the current year as well as to present their strategies for the upcoming year. It’s a great forum for ideas and suggestions to be exchanged and based on what was discussed there are several great initiatives that will be introduced next year….sorry I can say nothing more! 🙂
Anyway, whenever I travel to Frankfurt, I make sure to build in enough time to visit different divisions of the Airline Group to gain further insights into what is happening within the company. This trip was bit more intensive than previous trips as I spent quite a bit of time with the Social Media Group, LH Technik and a fantastic tour with Austrian Technik in Vienna which I’ll go into more detail in a post early next week.
For my visit with LH Technik, I was given full access to tour the various hangars and flight lines and observe aircraft in various states of maintenance; everything from aircraft being prepared for their next flight to seeing their cabins in complete tear-down as seat upholstery was being removed for cleaning. It’s amazing to watch a small army of technicians work, the choreography is impressive! But as they say, a plane sitting on the ground for any amount of time is not earning the airline any revenue, so things have to happen quickly, safely and accurately.
When I arrived at the hangar, I knew at least 1 747-8i would be there as it was undergoing routine servicing of its cabin. I had the ability to go into the cabin, but chose not to since there was a team of techs in the aircraft and I did not want to get in the way. Instead I chose to spend quality time walking around the aircraft and appreciate the engineering marvel.
D-ABYG, one of Lufthansa’s newest 747-8i aircraft.
Part of D-ABYG’s main landing gear
Looking towards the front of the aircraft
Looking towards the rear of the aircraft
D-ABYG – The 6th 747-8i in the fleet
D-ABYG’s Starboard GE90 Engines
A closer view…..EACH blade carries a €30,000 price tag!
Art in Engineering…..
The port-side GE90s
From the top of the stairway
The wing as seen from an open emergency exit
It’s no secret that the 747-8i is my favorite aircraft, both inside and out. My fascination for the aircraft began well before Lufthansa received their first 747-8i, D-ABYA, and put it into service on June 1, 2012.
To fuel my addiction, I was able to attend the inaugural event for D-ABYA in Frankfurt on May 31 and was fortunate enough to be her only passenger in First Class on my flight home on June 3, 2012, giving me an experience that few will ever have. For obvious reasons it is and will be for the rest of my days my most favorite flight!
