Zantop L-188's being destroyed

[Mahi]

Zantop Chop

Took a couple of pics last October.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l110/maverick152/Zantop3.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l110/maverick152/Zantop2.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l110/maverick152/ZantopBefore.jpg

Sad, but kinda cool to see up close.

 

[pilotyip]

5512 ex Eastern Airlines Bird in the last photo

 

[Gert_B_Frob]

Wow, are those the 8's that have been sitting along the GM plant for the past few years? I didn't think they would ever go.

 

[CopilotDoug]

It's a shame to see. I'm surprised someone is not out there working on a re-engining package where you could slap on some PW150s to the old Electra's or Convairs to make them more fuel efficient. Anyone know what variant of the 501 the Electra had?

 

[pilotyip]

If I remember right it was the 501 version of the T-56-8. 3950 T/O SHP, 971 TIT max for take off and 932 TIT for max continous.

 

[CopilotDoug]

Pretty decent climbout performance when empty, I assume?

 

[pilotyip]

In the winter at around 70K TOW, they would climb at around 6,000'/min, at 190 kts, to about 10,000'

 

[CopilotDoug]

6,000ft/min isn't bad I guess. It's no Cessna 172

 

[CommanderHoek]

Sad indeed

Not many L188's in the world anymore. Some in Europe and one in Mexico I think. Zantop had the world by the goolyonies at one point. What the heck went wrong. DC8's, L188's CV600's DC6's. They ran YIP! Now nothing but a fading memory. Does anyone have any info on turboprop LLC. I wanna L188 ride or job for that matter.

 

[RedGuy]

It's a shame to see. I'm surprised someone is not out there working on a re-engining package where you could slap on some PW150s to the old Electra's or Convairs to make them more fuel efficient. Anyone know what variant of the 501 the Electra had?

The 501's are actually pretty efficent, I think the L-188's had 501-D13's and H-13's. The Convair 580 with the 501-D/H13's only burned about 2000lbs/hr, and the 5800's with the 501-G22's burned alittle less yet had more power and went faster. That's pretty good when you look at the burn on any jet that gets close to that size.

 

[pilotyip]

Just got old like all of us

The L-188 was a fuel-efficient airplane for sure, 4000#/hrs at 350 kts TAS, good load and performance 36K payload out of 4500' runway. The Navy P-3 would cruise at over 400 Kts. But in the end the maintenance on these old airplanes was their demise. Particularly the shortage and cost of props. What finally did Zantop in was the cost of EGPWS mandated for all 121 airplanes in the spring of 2005.

 

[CopilotDoug]

it'd be nice if someone could pick up the airframes and start up an operation using the ex-zantop Electras. If there's money to be made, you know it's in Cargo. Not to HiJack the thread, but does anyone have an idea how many 580s the IFL group has? We saw one of their planes in the conga-line at CLE the other day, tucked in between two ERJ's which looked short and anorexic in comparison.

 

[pilotyip]

IFL has 4 CV-580's and 3 CV-5800's

 

[VABB]

The L-188 was a fuel-efficient airplane for sure, 4000#/hrs at 350 kts TAS, good load and performance 36K payload out of 4500' runway. The Navy P-3 would cruise at over 400 Kts. But in the end the maintenance on these old airplanes was their demise. Particularly the shortage and cost of props. What finally did Zantop in was the cost of EGPWS mandated for all 121 airplanes in the spring of 2005.

Yip,

I have heard that too, that maintenance costs eventually exceeded any possible return on investment. But, I also heard that Zantop began to fall apart after the Zantop kids took over, something about they couldn't run it efficiently or didn't want anything to do with it. Is there any truth to that or is it another Willow-Rumor?

 

[80for80]

From what I hear, we will be seeing picures of USA Jet aircraft in the same scrap pile in the not too distant future.