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Mod Blog: Lie Flat Seats, Winglets

Published June 16th, 2009 in Planes | 13 Comments →

Hello from HKG. Weather here is hot and humid but Ships 1807 and 1809 are in full swing on the Lie Flat mod. It’s been some time since our last update so we have some catching up to do.

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All 10 wingletted 767-300ERs are flying – seven of which are our 76T aircraft (12+ Hour flights with Main Deck crew rests). We’ll begin production on additional aircraft in the spring when our heavy maintenance line picks back up.

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Delta now has 143 aircraft outfitted with winglets, 95 of which are the APB Blended winglet type. (This includes pre-merger NW aircraft).

On the 777-side, DL now has an homogenized fleet of 777-200LR aircraft as ships 7101 and 7102 were modified to add two incremental BusinessElite seats bringing the passenger count to 45 up front.

Additionally, we have begun modification of our 777-200ER fleet to add three Economy seats by door 3. Currently three of these aircraft are flying (Ships 7003, 7007, 7008).

Our 767-400ER modification is progressing. Pictured are two of our aircraft (1807 and 1809) stationed in Hong Kong at the HAECO facility being modified. A third aircraft is being modified in Atlanta (1805). I want to give a big prop to both Delta Base Maintenance teams and HAECO maintenance for an excellent job in support of these mods.

Lastly, all (8) pre-merger DL 757-200 ETOPS (75E) aircraft scheduled for the SATCOM install are now equipped and in-service.

Mike Kotas
Fleet Programs

Mod Blog: May Updates

Published May 12th, 2009 in Planes | 9 Comments →

There has been a lot of activity over these past few weeks in mod (ification) land at Delta so we’ll jump right into it…

Ship 7008 (B777-200ER) received 2 STC’s (Supplemental Type Certificates) over the weekend including one that added (3) Economy Class seats to the aircraft. This ship is now configured for 50 BusinessElite and 221 Economy Class seats for a 271 total passenger count. This aircraft also received the cell modem installation to support Panasonic data transaction from the in-flight entertainment system. The remaining a/c in the 777-200ER fleet are slated to be converted over the next several weeks.

Ship 7107 (777-200LR) successfully delivered and entered the fleet at the beginning of the month. There is (1) 777LR delivery remaining. 7108 is slated to deliver around June 6th, and enter into the fleet a week later.

Ship 3101 (737-700) enters the paint shop tomorrow to be renumbered to 3601. The other 737-700 (3100 series) aircraft will get converted within the next weeks.

Ship 1804 (767-400ER) is parked, painted, and ready to fly. We are hoping for an end of the week launch as we await some final elements of the certification to wrap up with the various FAA offices. This will be Delta’s first 767 with a full-flat seat in BusinessElite.

Last week saw (3) 767-300 Domestic (76Q) aircraft retire from the fleet and park in the desert. Ships 121, 124, and 131 all left within a day of each other. This reduces our Q fleet to 11.

On the winglet side of the house, we have (7) 767-300ERs completed and flying. Ship 1613, 191, and 185 should all be completed in the next 2 weeks to round out the 10 aircraft we are scheduled to complete by the summer season.

Wi-Fi installs continue at a rapid pace and we’ve completed about half of the pre-merger Delta mainline domestic fleet. All in-service ME88’s now have Wi-Fi. The MD90 program is under way and we expect all MD90’s to have Wi-Fi by the 18th of May. Ship 3742 is in work for the 737-800 Wi-Fi mod with only the flight test portion of the certification left to complete. Lastly, the 757-200 fleet is up to 16 aircraft and more continue to produce each week. Check out Chris B.’s blog posts in the Wi-Fi section for more info.

Cabin Soft Goods is in full swing. We have 17% (42 A/C) of the pre-merger NW fleet converted with (11) A320’s and (10) 747-400’s leading the way.

Paint-wise, (58) mainline aircraft (23%) have the new Delta Livery. At least one of every fleet type sans the A332 has an aircraft painted. The regional side has (10) aircraft or 4% painted in the new colors.

Other aircraft mods in work include the Large Lav Tank modification, 13 of 17 757-200 ETOPS aircraft are currently outfitted with the increased lav tank size. This mod also includes adding head rests to all Economy seats.

Lastly, the fully ACARS integrated satellite communications solution is under way on the 757-200 ETOPS fleet. 6802 and 6803 both have sat com and 6801 and 6807 are in work.

Mike Kotas
Fleet Programs

Mod Blog: 777LR and Winglet Updates

Published April 27th, 2009 in Planes | 4 Comments →

It’s been a couple of weeks since we last posted updated modification information.

Some of our smaller mods that wouldn’t necessarily get headlines include 12 of 14 76C Crew Rest Enhancements complete. This includes removing aft underbin galleys forward of the Door 4 lavs and increasing the crew seat pitch for added leg room.

Additionally, the 75E production run for the Large Lav Tank and Y/C headrests have begun. 5 Aircraft are completed and 2 are in work. The Sat Coms (satellite communications) for these aircraft begin on May 1st.

Much activity on the 777 side of the house with the acquisition of Delta’s 7th 777LR, Ship 7107, scheduled to fly back tomorrow. Additionally, Delta completed the 1st of (2) 777LR +2 B.C mods on ship 7102. The aircraft now has a full complement of 45 J seats. Ship 7101 is scheduled to receive this mod in late May.

In the world of winglets, Ship 1612 is scheduled to deliver early next week which will be our 4th 767 with winglets. On the narrow body side of the house, we are inducting our 41st 738 aircraft for winglets. This line is producing a newly wingleted aircraft (combined with a routine mtc event) in just under 12 days.

Everyone is wonder what is going on with Ship 1804? After a couple of delays, we’ve finally buttoned her up and inducted her into paint. The paperwork is filed with the FAA and we are anxiously awaiting the final approval.

Mike Kotas
Fleet Programming

Mod Blog: Winglets and SkyTeam Plane Debut

Published April 7th, 2009 in Planes | 6 Comments →

Activity continues to churn on 1804. Our Flight Test is scheduled for later on this week and we are nearing the end of the modification. We are looking forward to beginning work on the next couple of aircraft. We will have 3 lines of aircraft out at one time with 1 here in Atlanta and 2 in Hong Kong.

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Ship 1820, a 767-400 (76C), was the first to receive the SkyTeam Logo paint job. Pictured here, the aircraft will make its formal debut tomorrow morning in Milan.

Winglets continue to be a hot topic. Most of you may have heard, Delta flew its first 76T winglet on 3/21, an out and back to Lagos. Tomorrow, the first 76L, ship 192, will be back from Hong Kong and will be entered into rotations.

Ships 7104 and 7105 have delivered to the fleet with 04 arriving in the morning. Once we complete their PTS mods, we will bring in 7102 to accomplish the +2 J/C seat mod to bring 7101 and 7102 up to 45 B/E seats and standardize with all our remaining deliveries.

Next week resumes our 75E large lav tank mods. We will begin the production run of these aircraft in time for the summer. Headrests will continue to be installed while the SAT COM aircraft will come in toward the end of the production line.

Lastly, we are in the early planning stage of converting 3101-3104 into 3601-3604. We have mid-May tentative cut over date for the first aircraft.

Mike Kotas
Fleet Programming

Mod Blog: 767ER Winglets

Published March 24th, 2009 in Planes | 10 Comments →

Hey all, hope everyone had a pleasant weekend. Delta did, especially since it delivered it’s first fully wingletted (is that a word?) aircraft back to the fleet. Ship 1610 pictured below is a 767-300ER (76T) that flew ATL-LOS starting Sunday evening. The winglets increase the wing-span by close to 11’ and the winglets themselves are 11’ in elevation.

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Unfortunately due to timing of the mod line vs. the certification completion date, we could not get 1610 painted in the new livery, however we will definitely have at least (2) if not more 767-300ER’s painted and wingletted before the summer season commences.

Switching to Wi-Fi, Chris Babb has been keeping everyone up to speed on tail numbers so I’ll make this brief. As of today we have 72 aircraft in-service with Wi-Fi (66 M88’s).

Lastly, Delta is expecting arrival of two more 777LR aircraft, 7104 and 7105 over the next 8 days. This will allow us to fund ship 7102 into Maintenance to begin it’s +2 mod.

Mike Kotas
Fleet Programs

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