Oct. 16--The Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 that flew into Tulsa International Airport on Tuesday will soon be no more than parts.
After disassembly by the team of 110 workers at Lufthansa Technik Component Services, the 23-year-old aircraft will get a second life of sorts as its components are used to repair other planes across the world.
The Tulsa facility, a branch of the German company that includes the Lufthansa airline, has torn down 23 of the smaller Boeing 737 aircraft to date but has never worked on one of the celebrities of the aviation world, the giant Boeing 747.
"Everything on this aircraft has some kind of value," said Dirk Ripa, president of Lufthansa Technik Component Services.
A Lufthansa crew flew the plane from Frankfurt, Germany, directly to Tulsa, a 10-hour trip.
Lufthansa Technik Component Services specializes in the tear-down of aircraft and conducts aerospace repairs. It performs work for major domestic airlines such as United Airlines, but the disassembly work is done exclusively on Lufthansa jets.
Boeing 737s are a staple of the U.S. and European markets for short flights, popular in today's hub-to-hub business model. But the much larger Boeing 747 was once a symbol of luxury in the air, with three rows of seats across, two decks and three classes of seats holding up to 322 passengers.
Lufthansa has been growing the Tulsa facility for more than five years; it started out as just 28 workers performing aircraft overhaul and repair. Today the company employs 110 people at the facility after an aggressive expansion plan announced last year that could add another 60 jobs or more.
Lufthansa is also the owner of private passenger airline BizJet International, a shuttle service for corporate clients across the globe.
Tuesday's arrival of the Boeing 747-400 is part of the company's "second life" program, where it will send parts back to be used on the overhaul of other aircraft in Tulsa, Germany and at other Lufthansa facilities.
"Many of the parts on this plane have a lot more life," Ripa said. "The engines will be sent back to Germany, and other parts will be reconditioned here."
The company is also working on the tear-down of an Airbus A310 it received earlier this year, making the 747 the 25th aircraft that Lufthansa Technik has received for disassembly.
Tulsa's Omni Air International, a charter jet service, is also working with Lufthansa on the disassembly project.
Kyle Arnold 918-581-8380
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Lufthansa's 747 D-ABVE
Aircraft make: Boeing 747-400
Passenger seats: 322
Weight: 394,100 pounds
Length: 231 feet
Wingspan: 211 feet
Commissioned: May 1990
Flight hours: 120,000
Mileage: 70 million
Total passengers carried: 4.4 million
Copyright 2013 - Tulsa World, Okla.
