V-Flyer

I noticed 2 of the A340's in storage G-VSUN & G-VELD are going from LDE to SFB which l believe is Florida this month, does anyone know if these have been sold ?

It could be that the company that Virgin had leased these aircraft from are sending them to Sanford where there are some aircraft re-fitting companies on the airport. Only a guess though!

G-VFAR Is already in the US, but i think VELD and VSUN may go there for scrap

There is a photo online of (the remains of) G-VFAR which was taken last December at Chennault.
She is stripped of her engines, winglets, landing gear, all cabin & cargo doors, cockpit windshield glass and nose cone. The Virgin Atlantic titles have been covered over, except on the underbelly, where they are still visible.
The flying lady and the name 'Molly' are still visible.
She is now an empty shell resting on stacks of wooden palettes.

Silver Surfer wrote:There is a photo online of (the remains of) G-VFAR which was taken last December at Chennault.
She is stripped of her engines, winglets, landing gear, all cabin & cargo doors, cockpit windshield glass and nose cone. The Virgin Atlantic titles have been covered over, except on the underbelly, where they are still visible.
The flying lady and the name 'Molly' are still visible.
She is now an empty shell resting on stacks of wooden palettes.

Do you know where the picture is? I'd like to see it!

fusionblue wrote:

Silver Surfer wrote:There is a photo online of (the remains of) G-VFAR which was taken last December at Chennault.
She is stripped of her engines, winglets, landing gear, all cabin & cargo doors, cockpit windshield glass and nose cone. The Virgin Atlantic titles have been covered over, except on the underbelly, where they are still visible.
The flying lady and the name 'Molly' are still visible.
She is now an empty shell resting on stacks of wooden palettes.

Do you know where the picture is? I'd like to see it!

I wouldn't.

The last VS plane I flew on was Molly

G-VSHY wrote:G-VFAR Is already in the US, but i think VELD and VSUN may go there for scrap

This is where one of the ex-BMI A330's (G-WWBD) also went for scrap.

Hamster wrote:It could be that the company that Virgin had leased these aircraft from are sending them to Sanford where there are some aircraft re-fitting companies on the airport. Only a guess though!

I think there's an aircraft storage/salvage company based there. As above, aircraft have gone there for scrap and I'm going to hazard a guess this is what's going to happen to VELD and VSUN.

The A340-300 has by and large been replaced with more economical twins (so think of aircraft such as the A330-300 for shorter runs and A350-900/777-200ER/787-9 for routes where the range is needed), so being scrapped and parts being salvaged is probably the way these and many other A343s still flying will end up in the next few years.

You'd be surprised at how much aircraft are worth more in spares than they are complete. G-WWBD was less than 12 years old and some of easyJet's 737-700s were no more than 8 years old when they were scrapped after being replaced by A319s.

She is now an empty shell resting on stacks of wooden palettes.

Comes to us all eventually!