Lufthansa is looking to save the cockpit of a former Airbus A320-200. The cockpit of the 32-year-old jet is being saved to become a piece at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, one of the two main Lufthansa cities. The aircraft was scrapped in Teruel, Spain, a facility storing many of the German flag carrier’s jets.
It’s always sad to see an aircraft reach the end of its life after diligently serving airlines for decades. However, airplanes take up space, so it often doesn’t make sense to keep them around. This is the approach that Singapore Airlines recently took with a couple of its A380s. It seems that, like Singapore, Lufthansa is mindful about what to do with scrapped aircraft.
A new museum piece
According to Lufthansa Technik, one of the airline’s former A320-200s registered as D-AIPF is currently in the process of being taken apart. The cockpit of the narrowbody jet is being saved so that it can go on display in Munich at the Deutsches Museum.
To remove the cockpit, it was hooked up to a crane. Work was then undertaken to carefully remove it from the fuselage, with a straight cut made where the front left and right doors began.
Once the cut had been made, the crane took over, holding the weight of the cockpit and gently lowered it. The cockpit includes the forward restroom and a galley area, though it seems the landing gear has been removed.
A 32-year-old jet
D-AIPF is a 32-year-old Airbus A320-200. According to data from ch-aviation.com, the aircraft first flew on October 18th, 1989. It went on to be delivered to Lufthansa with the serial number 83 in January 1990. By now, the manufacturer has surpassed the 10,000 mark for serial numbers on the A320 family.
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Lufthansa got a fair bit of use out of the jet. It clocked a total of 72,270 flight hours (8.24 years) across 56,942 flight cycles. Its average flight length was one hour and 16 minutes, while Lufthansa used it for an average of six hours and 13 minutes each day.
What will happen to the rest of the jet?
Lufthansa has already earmarked other parts of the jet to become part of its Upcycling Collection. Through the upcycling collection, the company resells parts of the aircraft for a new purpose. For example, an aircraft door can become a bar.
From D-AIPF, Lufthansa has created various products, from storage solutions made of the fuselage to a sideboard made of overhead bins or a desk light made from slats. 5,000 Aviationtag keyrings will also be made from the fuselage. The entire product range can be found here.
Are you pleased to see D-AIPF being upcycled into new products? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!
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